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Introduction
The vision discussed herein lays out the shape of Japan's foreign and security policy during the next ten years, in the event that a change of administration takes place, creating a new Democratic Party of Japan government. In order to plan the foreign and security policy for those ten years, we first need to envisage what the world will look like in 2015. We do not intend here to predict the shape of the world. But it seems obvious that world events will evolve beyond the ability of Japan's conventional foreign and security policy, which has passively accepted world trends as given. In fact, even today, Japan's foreign policy is deadlocked vis-?-vis China, South Korea, and North Korea due to the highly temporizing conduct of the current Koizumi government, while relations with Russia and even the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have also been stagnant.
What is urgently required is for Japan to plan and execute foreign and security policy that is firmly based on the vision of Japan's role in attaining the desirable yet feasible shape of the world in ten years time. We believe that this active foreign policy stance on the part of Japan is a postulate for a better world.
This vision herein examines what policy Japan should pursue in light of the desirable shape of the world in 2015. It is by no means a comprehensive sketch of Japan's foreign policy but tries to focus on what seem to be the three most urgent issue for Japan: Asia, the United States, and international governance. We hope to address the issues of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and others on a separate occasion.
First and foremost, we wish to establish that the primary objective of Japan's foreign and security policy is to pursue the country's "enlightened national interest." It is our conviction that, in the highly globalized world of today, looking after Japan's national interest resonates with the realization of the world's interest and, conversely, realization of the world's interest results in Japan's national interest. We should not pursue a zero-sum national interest that allows only one winner in the race for peace, prosperity, and national security. What is called for, instead, is to pursue the path of positive-sum national interest by which Japan can share gains and benefits with the rest of the world. This, in turn, calls for the adoption of the concept of enlightened national interest, in other words, pursuit of national interest in harmony with the international community.
History shows that chauvinistic nationalism is not only harmful to national interest in the long run but also clearly unproductive in the current, increasingly globalized, international environment. At the same time, a one-country pacifism, in which all responsibilities are surrendered to international society, is equally incompatible with the notion of enlightened national interest. This is obvious when we think of all the global issues we are facing today, including the environment, energy, terrorism, and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
We believe it is the responsibility of the new government of Japan to actively, constructively, and imaginatively pursue this goal of enlightened national interest. In the present world where globalization is opening door of many national societies and diverse interests cross both within and outside of the national boundaries, however, it would be difficult for the government alone to accurately define what this enlightened national interest is. In this sense, Japanese citizens' support and participation will be indispensable for the realization of enlightened national interest. The new government of Japan will be accountable to the citizens for its foreign and security policy and, at the same time, request active participation of citizens in the decision-making process.
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