[Kabar-indonesia] Assertive Japan Good for Asia - Indonesian Minister [+IHT]

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also: IHT: Asia will welcome a more outgoing Japan

Assertive Japan good for Asia - Indonesian minister

JAKARTA, October 2 (Reuters) - A Japan that takes a more 
assertive role in regional security matters would be welcome, 
Indonesia's defence minister said on Monday.

"I think a forceful and assertive Japanese role in East Asian security
would be welcome. It would provide a good balance," Indonesian Defence
Minister Juwono Sudarsono told Reuters in an interview.

New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to boost Japan's
say in global affairs, and wants to rewrite the U.S.-drafted pacifist
constitution to clarify the ambiguous status of Japan's military.

Article 9 of Japan's constitution renounces the right to go to war to
resolve international disputes and bans the maintenance of a military,
but has been interpreted as allowing armed forces for purely defensive
purposes.

Asian neighbours such as China and South Korea, which were colonised
or invaded by Japan before and during World War Two, are wary of the
moves to revise the constitution.

But Sudarsono, asked about the prospect of Japan's new government
moving away from the pacifist elements of its constitution, told
Reuters:

"I hope the Japanese will decide on establishing a defence department,
not a self-defence agency anymore, as part of its ambition to become a
normal country, less protected by the United States but still linked
closely.

"What we see now is the evolving, new East Asian balance, with the
rise of China, Japan and India, but still a predominantly important
role for the United States," he said.

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, also wants to play
its role in regional security, Sudarsono said, stressing efforts in
the Malacca and Singapore straits, through which passes much of the
sea traffic critical to China, South Korea and Japan.

"...what we can do in Southeast Asia is to work together principally
through the coordinated maritime patrol of Singapore, Indonesia and
Malaysia, so that this lifeline for the powerhouses of the East Asian
economies will not be disrupted," he said.

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International Herald Tribune
October 2, 2006

Op-Ed Columnist

Asia will welcome a more outgoing Japan

Philip Bowring

China, and some Koreans, worry about a resurgence of nationalism and a
revision of Japan's pacifist Constitution under its new prime
minister, Shinzo Abe. But most of the rest of Asia will welcome
indications from Abe that Japan intends to slough off post-1945
inhibitions and play a more active role in regional and global
affairs. As a nuclear-armed China grows in strength and benign U.S.
hegemony is slowly eroded by resource constraints and the Middle East
mire, Japan can bring a better power balance to Northeast Asia.

Abe's arrival should also be a reminder that amid all the hype about
China, Japan's economy is still bigger. And after a decade of
immersion in domestic economic problems, Japan is now in a position to
make better use of its economic muscle.

Abe's twin emphasis in his inaugural speech on patriotism and
relations with Asia neighbors may at first glance seem contradictory.
Are Asians not supposed to fear a nationalistic, outward-looking
Japan? Is this not the country that has inadequately atoned for its
imperialist excesses, whose former prime minister made a point of
honoring the war criminals memorialized at the Yasukuni Shrine, and
whose textbooks gloss over its atrocities?

If we're going to talk about history, however, we have to be wary of
China's propaganda and the West's willingness to forget its
imperialist past. The nationalist heroes of much of Asia had worked
for or with imperial Japan, like Sukarno and Suharto in Indonesia,
Aung San in Burma, Park Chung Hee in South Korea. As for the "Class A"
war criminals of Yasukuni, the term referred not to the magnitude of
the crimes, but to "crimes against peace," a broad term aimed mainly
at political figures. Actual "war crimes" and "crimes against
humanity" (such as the Nanjing massacre) were in other categories. The
one judge at the postwar Tokyo tribunal from a noncombatant nation,
Radhabinod Pal from India, argued in his dissenting opinion that Japan
was innocent. He wrote, "If Japan is judged, the Allies should also be
judged equally." (The Dutch judge also voted against most of the Class
A convictions.) That said, Abe would be wise not to go to Yasukuni.
The visits have been blown up into such an issue by China that they
have frozen discourse on other topics and occasioned an outpouring of
popular nationalist feelings in China. In turn, as a recent Pew survey
showed, there has been a marked deterioration over the past four years
in the Japanese public's perception of China.

These political stresses are in the economic interests of neither
country. The growth of Chinese demand has been crucial in reviving
Japan's economy, where domestic demand remains weak. But equally,
investment by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan remains the key to China's
export growth. China owes much to the continued increase in global
market shares by East Asian companies that use China for assembly.

What Japan needs is not a more nationalistic foreign policy but a more
activist one. That is easier said than done. A desire not to be seen
slavishly following Washington is hard to mesh with the overriding
need to maintain a close strategic partnership with the United States
in the face of China's rise. And obvious shared interests with South
Korea over how to deal with North Korea, and with Russia over
resources and the Northeast Asian power balance, are impeded by the
baggage of history.

But Japan holds more cards than one might think. Despite the rush to
develop relations with China, most Asian countries would be quietly
happy to see Japan's conventional forces grow in power and reach and
would prefer Japanese investment in their factories to China's buying
up resources and real estate. No central bank seriously believes that
the yuan will become an international currency in the near future,
supplanting the yen as Asia's major unit. And even Seoul is beginning
to recognize that in future it is more likely to have problems over
history with China (which claims it as its own) than with Japan.

In short, there are opportunities galore for Abe to exploit the fund
of goodwill for Japan that exists in Asia. But it does require a
strategy that appears outward-looking and generous and the avoidance
of atavistic, self-pitying attitudes and exceptionalist notions so
common to Japan's traditional right wing. Japan can say no to the
United States and China, but first it must say yes more loudly to
Asia.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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