Why Did Hillary Make Her First Visit to Japan?

On Feb. 16, Hillary Clinton paid a visit to Japan, her first foreign visit as Secretary of State. It is very symbolic that Japan should be the first stop in Asia. During the Bush era, Sino-American relations seemed more important, leading to fears in Japan that the Japanese-American partnership had weakened.

However, as Clinton’s statements and actions in Japan show, the Obama administration has already sent a clear and unequivocal signal to Japan: the U.S.-Japan partnership is unshakable.

While this trip has renewed America’s emphasis on the U.S.-Japan alliance, it also tested out U.S. strategy towards the country. For example, in order to counter the economic crisis it currently faces, America obviously needs the help of the world’s second biggest economy, Japan. Moreover, as America’s East Asian ally and an important American banker on the world stage, any changes in strategy on America’s part must involve Japan.

In addition, compared with the Bush administration during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the Obama administration has renewed the U.S.-Japan partnership, clearly also showing that it will return to the path of multilateralism. Japan is not only Clinton’s first stop on her Asian tour – she visited Japan for close to three days, the same length as her stay in China. This indicates Japan’s position in America’s current strategic blueprint.

Japan’s “Asahi Shimbul” editor-in-chief Yoichi Funabashi thinks there were three reasons for Clinton’s choice of Japan as her first stop in Asia: to reconfirm the value and role of the US-Japan partnership; to trade opinions on a number of problems, especially a number of matters involving China and North Korea; and to confirm Prime Minister Aso’s visit to Washington, which will be his first meeting with President Obama.

On the question of whether or not America can get Japan to take on further responsibility in the War on Terror, Funabashi thinks the keys are foreign policy and development. He says Japan plays an important role toward fragile societies, especially Afghanistan and Pakistan, providing financial assistance along with support for social development, and Japan wants to continue to play this kind of role. He says, Japan hopes that America will implement Clinton’s “smart power” with greater efficiency and force, whether in the area of counter-terrorism, nuclear proliferation or globalization.

On the question of whether Japan will become more dependent on the U.S. in the future, Funabashi thinks this will depend on its assessment of geopolitical threats. Japan will pay close attention to China in the future in order to chart a path for its “peaceful rise,” which will have a lot to do with Japan’s own behavior. At the same time, if America and Japan share similar assessments of threats, and furthermore, efficiently coordinate their policies, especially in the non-traditional security sphere, including climate change, alternative energy and other problems of globalization, then the U.S.-Japanese relationship will be strengthened.

Obama’s foreign policy is considerably different from that of the previous Bush administration. On the U.S.-Japan relationship, Funabashi thinks the Obama administration will recognize what a country does, not what kind of country it is. Whether a country is America’s ally or not, as long as they are capable of implementing various policies, then America should value them more.

Funabashi also says, compared with the previous administration, the Obama administration seeks an attitude of greater cooperation and transparency between the U.S., China and Japan. Prompting the U.S. to reconsider its trilateral relations is the more mature relationship between China and Japan and the common need to collaborate on some issues of globalization, especially global warming and energy-saving technological innovation. From this perspective, a new motivation could deepen ties between China and Japan. Consequently, Funabashi believes, from each side’s perspective, cooperation between the three countries can ultimately result in a “non-zero-sum game.”

Concerning the part Japan will play in America’s future Asian strategy, Funabashi says the country will continue to develop three strategic roles:

1) Supporting Role: Japan plays a supporting role in maintaining geopolitical stability, including nuclear non-proliferation, along with the peace and security of the Korea peninsula and the stability of the Pacific. America is a military superpower, whereas Japan’s military force is purely defensive, according to the bounds of its constitution, Japan must play this kind of supporting role and this kind of restraint will continue to exist.

2) Supplementary Role: As global threats increasingly intensify, people’s understanding of threats will also shift from a simple military perspective to a non-military perspective, Japan should be capable of serving a supplementary role to America on this issue. From this perspective, Japan can certainly achieve this stabilizing role. The development and pursuit of this kind of supplementary role is urgently needed, for example in Afghanistan.

3) Stabilizing Role: As in the past, Japan will continue to stabilize relations with neighboring countries. Regional security is of great importance amidst economic crises. At the same time, the U.S. will be bogged down in Middle Eastern and Central Asian affairs, and therefore, Asian countries, especially China and Japan, will be expected to play a role in stabilizing the region.