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III. Evolving The Japan-U.S. Relationship
Japan and the United States are in alliance. Based on the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, our two countries share fundamental values and interests and closely cooperate and collaborate in the fields of security, politics, and economy. The Japan-U.S. alliance has been vital to the stability of the Asian-Pacific region and has played an extremely important role in ensuring peace and prosperity in Japan. Since the demise of the Soviet Union, the United States has become an incomparable superpower of the world, and its supremacy will likely remain unshaken for the foreseeable future. The Japan-U.S. alliance is a great asset for Japan, and the United States will undoubtedly still be an indispensable partner for Japan in ten years time. While this will remain an unshakable premise, the security environment surrounding the Japan-U.S. relationship has been changing greatly, making it imperative for us to envision the evolution of this bilateral relationship toward 2015.
The first specific example of those changes is the end of the Cold War and the erosion of clear-cut rivalry between the East and the West. This rivalry was succeeded by a much more complex world of conflicts of interests. In this complex world, Japan and the United States certainly share the common values of freedom and democracy. However, we must realize that methods of attaining these goals as well as national interests do not necessarily converge between our two countries.
Another change is that the United States has made the war on terror a priority and instances have been observed where it has resorted to unilateral action and preemptive strikes when it feels an occasion so requires. In the midst of these changes, while the United States has begun to expect Japan to play a greater security role beyond Japan and the Far East, the current Japanese government continues to take a temporizing and passive attitude. It continues to vacantly stress the importance of the "Japan-U.S. alliance in the global context," making Japan a faithful and blind follower of U.S. strategy. While this attitude may harm Japan's national interest, there is also concern that it could undermine bilateral relations in the long run. What is urgently called for today is to keenly realize that the Japan-U.S. relationship now faces a critical test. In order to ensure sustainable and stable development of this bilateral partnership, we will need two kinds of evolution in the security field.
First, the new government of Japan will have to clarify its fundamental policy in relation to joint actions with the United States in security matters. More concretely, it should aim to achieve a common understanding with the United States that, while Japan intends to strengthen its alliance with the United States in the Asian-Pacific region in light of changing international security environments, it will basically deploy its Self-Defense Forces to deal with global issues beyond the region, such as in the Middle-East and Africa, only under the U.N. framework. Today, we are faced with various new developments such as the changing strategic balance in the Asian-Pacific region, heightened nuclear threat from North Korea, the rise of new threats including terrorism, advancement of the revolution in military affairs (RMA), and the transformation of U.S. military forces. Under the increasingly opaque international environment, it is necessary to mobilize the stabilizing force of Japan-U.S. alliance in the Asian-Pacific region. However, even within this alliance, the Japanese government will maintain its basic stance to be restrictive toward military solutions.
Blindly following the U.S. lead in global security issues could harm Japan's enlightened national interest. Japan should be more actively engaged in global issues, but it should send its Self-Defense Forces overseas, in principle, only under U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Second, the new government of Japan will try to make Japan-U.S. alliance more even-balanced, respecting the ability of both governments to make independent decisions. In the past sixty years since the end of the war, Japan's security policy has been so dependent on the United States that it has been in a state of "auto pilot." For a sovereign nation, however, one-sided dependence for one's security on the other country is nothing but the abdication of political responsibility. To evolve the Japan-U.S. partnership and make it public property for Asia and the world, the new Japanese government needs to convey the wishes of the Japanese people and the viewpoint of other Asian nations to the U.S. government and, when necessary, request self-restraint on the part of the United States. Moreover, as its good friend, the Japanese government should continue to persuade the U.S. government that action sanctioned by international and multilateral institutions including the United Nations is the only path toward world peace. To construct Japan-U.S. alliance between two fully independent partners, Japan must try hard to fulfill its duty to defend itself more vigorously. At the same time, both the United States and Japan should review various systems, regulations, and institutions associated with Japan-U.S. Security Treaty.
1. Rebuilding Defense Capability
When constructing Japan's security policy the most important responsibility of the government is to ensure the safety of the Japanese people. This should be our fundamental stance. For example, the Japanese government owes it to its citizens to build up the greatest possible capability that it can single-handedly muster for counterterrorism and territorial defense. The new government of Japan will implement all the reforms in equipment and legal arrangements for this purpose.
As far as Japan's defense system is concerned, it will be absolutely necessary to improve the capacity to counter new kinds of threats and to thoroughly review equipment and personnel deployment policies that are hangovers from the Cold War days. The new government of Japan will continue to trust Japan's own capability to make appropriate judgment. While the new government will continue to give priority to Japan's own decision, it will pursue the missile defense option after it verifies its technical feasibility. Of course, the government will pay due consideration so that this decision will not induce a renewed arms race in the region.
No country can effectively defend itself or even make a correct judgment about its defense needs without its own information and intelligence capability. Japan urgently needs to strengthen its own intelligence capability.
2. Strengthening Strategic Dialogue Capability
In the past Japan-U.S. strategic dialogue, the United States has always taken the leadership and Japan has followed. In the future dialogue, it will be necessary for Japan to offer a greater number of proposals and suggestions based on its own security perspectives. It will also be important for politics to play a larger role in this dialogue.
In the fields of preventive diplomacy, preventive security, nation building, and peace building in the Asian-Pacific region, Japan will have to strengthen its capacity to present proposals to the United States, particularly in areas where Japan can play a complementary role. As a prerequisite, Japan must upgrade its assistance in peace building and nation building by its police, bureaucracy, private corporations, and NGOs.
As an ally and friend of the United States in Asia, Japan will constantly communicate the diverse values of Asian peoples to the United States so that U.S. foreign policy toward Asia can reflect these voices.
3. Strengthening Japan-U.S. Cooperation in the Defense of Japan and Stabilization of the Asian-Pacific Region
Since peace and stability in the Asian-Pacific region is crucially important for Japan, the new government of Japan will deepen defense cooperation with the United States in emergency situations in Japan as well as matters directly affecting Japan's security. Needless to say, Japan's own initiative in defending itself will be the first priority.
The new government will also construct Japan-U.S. bilateral as well as multilateral cooperative schemes to effectively counter new threats. Concrete actions will be taken toward this goal including participation in the PSI and the strengthening of various anti-terrorism measures such as upgrading proper law enforcement capability, intelligence gathering and analysis, and financial/export control. Furthermore, the government intends to prevent terrorist organizations from taking root in society by absorbing people's dissatisfaction through the promotion of human security which will reduce individual and collective anxieties. It will also assist other Asian countries to improve their own law enforcement capabilities so that they can avoid becoming a haven to terrorists.
4. Consolidation and Reduction of U.S. Bases in Japan and Revision of the Agreement on the Status of U.S. Forces in Japan
To restore Japan's sovereignty and make Japan-U.S. relationship more sustainable and acceptable to the Japanese people, the new government will immediately start negotiations with the United States to revise the current agreement on the status of U.S. forces in Japan, particularly in relation to interrogation of law offenders and environmental conservation.
It will be impossible to sustain the current condition of U.S. bases in Japan, particularly those in Okinawa, which are the relics of the immediate post-war days. Utilizing the movements toward military transformation in the United States, the new government will promote consolidation and reduction of the bases. At the same time, it intends to clarify and reinvigorate the prior consultation mechanism stipulated by Japan-U.S. security pact.
5. Further Deepening of Japan-U.S. Relations
The importance of Japan-U.S. relationship is not confined to the security area. The United States will also continue to be Japan's most important partner in political, economic, and social affairs. Sixty years of good relations after World War II is a success story attributable to the utmost efforts on both sides. Further developing this bilateral relationship will require maturity and humility on the part of the United States and a sense of responsibility and determination to play its own role on the part of Japan.
In the economic area, Japan should further expand its trade, investment, and human exchange with the United States with the ultimate goal of concluding a bilateral FTA. And it will be crucially important to solve such issues as trade friction before they become politicized. We will have to enlarge the coordinating capability of the office of Prime Minister for this purpose. Realizing the other party is an indispensable partner even in the economic field, both the United States and Japan will and should further deepen the bilateral economic relationship.
It will be absolutely essential to launch a full-fledged cultural and intellectual exchange with the United States in order to enjoy the fruits in ten years time. Japan should induce American and other foreign universities to open campuses in Japan, establish think tanks with the capability for advanced American studies, and promote joint endeavors with American universities, research institutions, and foundations in order to develop future actors of Japan-U.S. relationship. The networks of personal contacts with Americans accumulated heretofore are an invaluable asset for Japan, and the Japanese government should actively utilize these networks. Inter-parliamentary exchange between the United States and Japan has been losing its presence in recent years, but the dialogue between legislators of the two countries must be reinvigorated on all levels including political party, national legislature, and local assembly.
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