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Japan's DPJ revises its foreign policy stance
AFP - 1 hour 47 minutes ago
TOKYO (AFP) - - The party widely tipped to take power in Japan soon has been struggling to define its foreign policy, torn between its pacifist roots and the real-world challenges of government.
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For years in opposition, the centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has opposed Japan's gradually expanding role in "American wars," including rear-guard missions in support of US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In recent months, however, as the DPJ has taken a strong lead over Prime Minister Taro Aso's conservative government ahead of August 30 elections, the party has been moderating its foreign policy and security policies.
Few observers now expect radical change if and when the DPJ takes power, and the party itself has been at pains to reassure foreign capitals, especially Washington, that Japan will remain a reliable partner.
The US-Japan security alliance has been the bedrock of officially pacifist Japan's diplomacy during the Cold War and more recently as North Korea has flexed its nuclear muscle and China has steeply raised defence spending.
The DPJ this month quietly withdrew its past vows for a "radical revision" of the US security alliance or of quickly pushing for a reduction of the 40,000 US forces based in Japan, mainly on southern Okinawa island.
Nonetheless, on Wednesday the man who would be prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, also signalled that not everything will be business as usual and that his DPJ would back away from the current government's more hawkish stance.
Asked on the campaign trail whether his government would end an Indian Ocean naval refuelling mission that has since 2001 supported US operations in Afghanistan, Hatoyama said "our basic stance is not to extend it."
It was the first concrete example of the party's campaign pledge, published this week, that it would be seeking "independent-minded diplomatic policies and putting the Japan-US alliance on a close and equal footing."
"There will be some change in Japan's diplomacy as Hatoyama wants to show his own colours, which would be different from Aso's," said Tetsuro Kato, professor of politics at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo.
"Ending the Afghan mission is one example. But the change is likely to be limited, partially because the opposition camp is made up of a mixture of conservatives and liberals who are sharply divided over foreign policy."
Taking a cautious approach, Hatoyama also stressed that, if he wins, as polls predict, he would "want to build relations of trust with President (Barack) Obama," who is expected to visit Tokyo in November.
A senior DPJ party source told media that Tokyo would also seek to placate the United States with new aid projects in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
The approach would be a return to the traditional "soft power" emphasis of post-war Japan, which has focused much more on generous aid than boots on the ground, sometimes drawing charges of "chequebook diplomacy."
Japan's post-World War II constitution prohibits military action and limits the role of its so-called Self-Defence Forces, and Tokyo has long proudly flown the flag of pacifism while also strongly campaigning for a nuclear-free world.
The Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan almost without break since 1955, has in recent years sought a more prominent role for Japan on the international stage, in line with its status as the world's number two economy.
Aso's LDP has strongly pushed Japan's long-held wish of a permanent UN Security Council seat and also gradually expanded Japan's military efforts abroad, including taking part in anti-piracy patrols off Somalia.
Almost every time the LDP has wanted to send soldiers abroad, the DPJ has objected -- but now most observers expect that the DPJ, once in power, is unlikely to sharply diverge from Tokyo's past positions, and that any foreign policy changes it makes will be incremental and mostly symbolic.
"We live in a world where we cannot expect rapid changes of principle," said Jiro Yamaguchi, politics professor at the Hokkaido University. "By showing degrees of change, you can demonstrate your political philosophy."
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