Japan and neighbors

Tokyo must know reasons for diplomatic isolation

Japan is suffering both internally and externally, with an unending economic slump at home and diplomatic conflicts with its neighbors abroad. Tokyo has brought most ― almost all ― of these troubles upon itself. That means the country should seek solutions not outside of its territory but from within.

The island nation began to modernize ahead of its neighbors in the late 19th century under the slogan “get out of Asia and join Europe.” The Europeanized, imperialistic Japan then overran what it saw as its “bad companions”, Korea and China, inflicting indescribable pain and leaving indelible disgrace upon the latter.

Japan has never “really” repented ― at least in the eyes of its victims ― for the wrongdoings and focused only on economic revival under the patronage of its former conqueror, the United States.

It’s no surprise that Japan, led by rightist politicians, the most vocal group in Japanese politics, has turned around to deny and even justify its wartime atrocities. More lamentably, Tokyo is trying to break through lengthy economic stagnation and other domestic problems by becoming more assertive politically and militarily abroad, under the weird pretext of becoming a “normal” country, meaning going back to pre-WW II Japan.

Some Japanese nationalists are saying, “Get out of Asia once again.” It would be astonishing then if Tokyo’s relations with Asian neighbors don’t get strained. And in most of cases, Japan is to blame.

“Japan will have to take the entire responsibility if the relationship with Korea worsens while Korea is governed by brothers like you,” former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiro Mori was quoted telling Lee Sang-deuk, the President’s elder brother, in January 2008. Such was the pro-Japanese propensity of the Japan-born president, but Tokyo and its diffidence has driven even the arguably most Japan-friendly Korean leader and administration to the opposite direction, if temporarily.

It would be sensible of course to think that Lee’s latest behavior has some political connotations, as might be the case of his Japanese counterpart too. And the Korean President certainly has made remarks, which were unnecessary and undiplomatic for a national leader. If anything, however, these must reflect his accumulated frustration from having to persuade non-listening partners, especially given the traits the pragmatic, CEO-turned-president has shown since taking office. That means there will be fewer and fewer pro-Japanese Koreans if Tokyo remains unchanged.

It’s long past time for Japan to reconsider itself. Externally, the country has maintained a constitutional monarch since 1945, but internally, it still seems to be the theocracy as it was a millennia ago. In other words, it is more similar to Iran than to Great Britain, spiritually and emotionally. Two Japanese Cabinet ministers paid a visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, which memorializes the war dead, including Class A war criminals. A country which respects their emperor as a demigod shouldn’t have let its villains slay the empress of a neighbor.

Asian neighbors are waiting for the day when Japan turns from non-Asian, spiritually ancient and a quasi-theocratic country to an Asian, secular and modern state, a “normal” country in real meaning.

Domestic politics of regional countries should not be allowed to hurt their friendship nor damage their economic cooperation. Nor should raw emotion dominate reasoning in this part of the world. And most of this depends on the country that started all of this. <The Korea Times>

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