Rebuilding the U.S.-Japan Alliance: First, Diplomacy

In order to halt the decline in Japanese diplomacy in recent years, there has been a rise in rhetoric concerning international topics. The Noda administration would like to establish a turning point.

At the inauguration press conference, Prime Minister Noda emphasized, “In a multipolar world, this era of diplomacy and security policy revolves around the Japanese-American relationship and we must deepen and further strengthen it.”

The prime minister’s abilities are still unknown, but we hope he follows through on this fundamental policy.

The Japan-U.S. Alliance has been acting as a public service for peace and safety in the Asia-Pacific region. It is also the consensus among many other Asian nations. The destabilization of Japan-American relations would negatively influence Japan’s relationships with other Asian nations.

For several years, the environment surrounding Japanese diplomacy has become rigid. The relative decline of national power due to five short-term prime ministers and the coming to power of emerging nations like China is undeniable.

This was particularly apparent after the change of government two years ago, with former Prime Minister Hatoyama’s diplomatic inexperience and former Prime Minister Kan’s pending question of whether the Japanese-American relationship was straying or whether it was stagnant. First, we ought to reconstruct the strength of the Japan-U.S. Alliance, then rebuild diplomacy.

The docket is full for the diplomatic schedule with the U.N. General Assembly continuing late into this month, the G-20 and East Asia Summit being held in November and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. President Obama will be building relationships of trust with each country’s head of state and Japan needs to protect its national interest.

The most important thing is not “deepening the alliance” as Hatoyama and Kan touted, but taking specific actions toward resolving that issue.

The U.S. wants progress on the issue of moving the Futenma Air Station within one year. If that is not possible, there is concern that the Marines in Okinawa will have a massive relocation to Guam.

Prime Minister Noda, along with Foreign Minister Gemba, Defense Minister Ichikawa and Internal Affairs Minister Kawabata, needs to work closely for Okinawa’s cooperation and use all their strengths to overcome the deadlock.

Communication with China is also important. Since the collision of a fishing boat in the open sea near the Senkaku Islands last fall, the Japan-China-South Korea summit meeting has been held, but a stalemate has continued concerning issues like the problem of the gas fields in the East China Sea.

They should expand the issues for guaranteeing security and cooperation for issues of economics and trade in order for them to bear fruit, instead of the verbal rhetoric of a “strategy of mutually beneficial relations.”

Making decisions quickly is crucial, despite the previous administration’s decision to postpone the deployment of the Self-Defense Force to peacekeeping operations in South Sudan.

What we want of the Liberal Democratic Party and other opposition parties is, for reasons of parliamentary deliberation, to stop the custom of limiting foreign visits for the prime minister and the foreign minister. To continue to harm national interests under the shield of the “authority of the National Diet” exceeds the citizens’ understanding.