Posted on 08/22/2006 4:19:52 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Aug. 23)
Japan's next premier
About a month from now, Japan will have a new prime minister. Shinzo Abe, the present chief cabinet secretary, is expected to be elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party with the majority support of party lawmakers and cadre members on Sept. 19 and 20, and will be confirmed as prime minister in a perfunctory lower house vote.
Seoul-Tokyo relations have been deadlocked for nearly the entire period of the Koizumi administration. This is due mainly to the premier's hard-line stance on the problems of the past, represented by his annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine. Leaders of the two neighbors should seek an improvement after the change of power in Japan, yet Seoul officials, knowing Abe is more to the right than Koizumi in his political beliefs, wonder how much flexibility he can show in his Asian policies.
Abe made a "secret" visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 2.5 million war dead are honored along with 14 top war criminals of World War II, last April, and has maintained a sort of strategic ambiguity about his attitude on the war shrine. "I do not intend to reveal whether I would visit the shrine again or not," he was quoted as saying.
When Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon visited Tokyo following North Korea's test firing of missiles in July, he conveyed to Abe and other Japanese leaders Seoul's tough message about post-Koizumi era relations. Korea would maintain no summit-level contact with Japan if the next Japanese prime minister visits the Yasukuni Shrine. It is the task of the new Japanese leadership to seize an opportunity for dialogue.
China is showing signs of flexibility with its apparent restraint in responding to Koizumi's latest visit to Yasukuni and this may reflect Beijing's hope for a change to a more productive relationship. At the moment, there is the urgent question of North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, while the economy and regional security questions require all players to take steps forward, freeing themselves from the fetters of the past.
Shinzo Abe and other Japanese leaders are advised to give careful thought to what has happened across the East Sea over the past several years. It was a time when Korea, resonant with internal controversy over the supremacy of "independence" against the U.S. alliance, was seen to be moving closer toward the "continent" away from the Washington-Tokyo axis. The next prime minister of Japan must be able to judge how much Japan contributed to this shift with its leaders' obsession with Yasukuni and other legacies of the past.
As his foremost task, Abe will push a constitutional amendment to legitimize the use of Japan's armed forces through the rewriting of Article 9 and a new interpretation to recognize the right of "collective self-defense." This will trigger repercussions from liberal domestic forces as well as Asian countries. If Tokyo expects tougher interaction with its neighbors, there is the even stronger need to establish an Asia first policy.
In bilateral relations with Tokyo, everything counts from Yasukuni Shrine to World War II comfort women, from history textbooks to Dokdo and the EEZ. Yet, the two countries that have commonly pursued democracy and market economy over the past six decades, both fairly successfully at that, with their peoples making ever closer cultural and social interactions, now need to make earnest joint efforts to overcome some of the historical issues. A new government leader must show a new leadership in this long-overdue endeavor.
(END)
He looks like a Japanese Paul McCartney
Japan has had 12 prime ministers since I came here in '85 . Abe will make # 13 . 13 in 21 years . I often quiz my Japanese friends to name them . NOBODY can . Most are lucky if they get the last 5 correct . Some couldn't remember who was PM before Koizumi !
"collective self-defense." This will trigger repercussions from liberal domestic forces
Look for communist agitators to riot in the streets.
How could anyone forget the Mori golfing incident?
That's a lot of PM's.
I can name U.S. Presidents back to Kennedy and after that, I am not sure. Eisenhower?
If the S. Koreans are stupid enough to turn their backs against the "Washington-Tokyo axis", they will find their backs to the wall soon enough...
" can name U.S. Presidents back to Kennedy and after that, I am not sure. Eisenhower? "
I was born in 1952 , when Truman was Prez . Then it was Ike , JFK , LBJ , Nixon , Ford , Carter , Reagan , Bush , Clinton , Bush .
We've had 11 Presidents since 1952 , and the Japanese have had 12 PMs since 1985 !
Why such a heavy turnover?
One of them died when Bush I threw up on him.
lol
" Why such a heavy turnover? "
Scandals ...ineptness ...somebody else's turn ...
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