Japan blindly following the US

     This is what follows yesterday's. 

     The fact that Japan voted in favour of the above-mentioned resolution on both the occasions does not mean at all that Japan is beginning to be critical of the US.  Japan is following the US almost blindly, without thinking with her own brains and without standing on her own.

     The US world policy has been shown in her Statement on the US Security Policy document published on 18 of this month.  Three pillars are to be noticed.  First, the US is trying to keep distance from China and Russia.  This has made her approach Japan, Australia and India more intensely.  Then the US look at the DPRK and Iran as enemies.  Mr.Trump has recently said that the US will 'totally destroy' the DPRK.  Negotiations aimed at peace seem to be out of the agenda with them.  Then thirdly the international terrorist organizations are also the enemies.  These three are the major threats facing the US.

     Unfortunately Japan has accepted practically each and every item of these as her own.  It means Japan's foreign policy is becoming more and more of a military character.  It also means that Japan is importing more and more of the latest weapons, mainly from the US.  When Mr.Trump visited Japan early in November, he came as if he was a salesman of the weapons.

     Our Asian neighbours are watching these processes with apprehension.  For us the Japanese, on top of all those there is one critical issue.  It is that PM Abe is keen on revising the Constitution, so that the present Self-Defence Forces will be constitutionally legalized and authorized as the ordinary military services.  It is as if the DPRK, and sometimes China also, are giving Abe a big helping hand by augmenting and modernizing their weapons, thereby threatening the mind of the average Japanese.  2018 is going to be the first year of the crucial political battle in Japan.  May it be a Very Happy Year.   

       

Japan's Position as against the US

     On 18 December, 2017, there was a voting in the UN Security Council on the resolution sponsored by Egypt to virtually annul Mr. Trump's decision to change the status of Jerusalem.  The result was 14 to one.  The US was the only opposing country.  Still it was a veto.  But it showed the tendency in the world opinion on the issue.

     Then a practically the same resolution, this time sponsored by Turkey and Yemen, was put before the General Assembly on 21.  It should be remembered that prior to the voting the US Ambassador to the UN sent a letter to each delegation warning against voting for the resolution.  It amounted to an intimidation, reminding us of the gunboat diplomacy of the olden days.

     So we are not in a position to know what the voting pattern would have been in the absence of such an intimidation.  As the matter stood, it was passed by 128 to 9, with 35 abstentions and 21 absences. 

     We may presume that the latter two would have been smaller in number in the case of no such intimidation.  What is clear, however, is that the US is not going to listen to the world opinion as was represented by the voting.  She is going to cut her contribution to the UN by a quarter or so, a very mean policy.

     How did Japan vote on those two occasions.  On both occasions Japan voted for the resolution.  Does it mean Japan is keeping distance from the US in her foreign policy?  That is, unfortunately, not the case.  We will look at it from a different angle.