Japan is a country prospering in a world of
Pax Americana, because Japan itself was remade into a liberal democracy by
America. Nationalists should bear it in mind in recent debates for
constitutional reform before complaining US made postwar constitution. Blaming
America will dismantle the safety net for Japan’s security and global standing.
Therefore, it is Japan’s foremost priority to make its voice heard among foreign
policymakers in the United States, whether in a unipolar or a multipolar world.
Foreign policy is primarily arranging state
to state relations, the Abe administration is right to improve relations with the
Obama administration, which was shattered by the Hatoyama administration. Some
people mention philosophical gaps between supposedly nationalist Abe and
liberal or even “post American” Obama. However, enduring alliances in history
have overcome such differences. This is typically seen in Britain’s special
relationship with the United States. It has been a foreign policy priority for
Britain to keep a staunch alliance with America to boost its global standing,
regardless of ideology of the incumbent administration, as in the case of
Democrat Kennedy and Conservative MacMillan, Republican Bush and Labour Blair. But
that is not enough to maximize Japan’s influence on US policymaking.
For fear of Chinese and Korean lobbies,
with the background of the rise of Asian American population, Japanese
opinion leaders are keen to build lobbies against their aggressive
penetration to the American political corridor. Congressman Mike Honda’s “notorious”
resolution to blame Japan for Korean wartime sex slaves inflicted a deep
psychological scars among the Japanese public. Such sentiments are
understandable, but lobbying to serve specific country’s interests will make
Americans increasingly suspicious and vigilant. Remember vehement hostility to
the Japanese lobby among the American grassroots in the 1980s when the Japan money
bought the Rockefeller Center. Excessive dependence on the “Japan lobby” or the
“Japan handlers” does not necessarily advance Japan’s national interest.
Rather, I would argue that Japan appeal common
interests with US global strategy. Despite post American thinking of the Obama administration
and isolationist mindset among small government Republicans, we have to notice backlashes
of internationalists among American foreign policymakers. They are much better
partners for Japan than dubious “Japan Lobby”. In order to explore close
relations with Internationalists in Washington, the Japanese side must be more
broad-sighted and globally-oriented. Let me mention a typical case. The
Japanese public welcomed naïvely when the Obama announced the pivot to Asia. In
reality, it was just a scale down of US military presence in the Middle East,
as seen in the withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, as McKenzie
Eaglen, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, frequently
points out that American military presence has not strengthened sufficiently to
counter China, North Korea and so forth.
When Secretary of State John Kerry visited
East Asia this April, it was global interventionists who demanded him not to
appease China with regard to the Sino-Japanese conflict. Eight Republican
senators, including John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Marco Rubio, and so forth sent
an open letter to remind the amendment of the National Defense Authorization
Act by Democrat Senator Jim Webb and Independent Senator Joseph Lieberman to articulate
US obligation to defend Japan, in case of the Chinese invasion to the Senkaku
Islands. Therefore, the reminder top secretary Kerry is beyond partisan
politics. Also, most of them are critical to Obama’s Middle East policy as a superpower
suicide. It is neither regional balance of American strategy nor America’s
attention to Japan that matters. It is the will of assuming the burden of Pax
Americana that really serves the interests of Japan and the rest of the world.
Most importantly, 9-11 terrorist attacks have made it clear that commitment to Pax
Americana is the vital interest for the United States itself. True partnership
is mutually beneficial. This shall never be achieved through the channel of
dubious “Japan Lobby”.
Fortunately, there are some initiatives by
globalists in the United States. A joint project called “Defending Defense” was
found by the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Foreign
Policy Initiative. This project explores how to maintain American defense
capability both in terms of quality and quantity in an era of fiscal austerity
as typically seen in sequestration. But military capability is not the end.
More importantly, political heavyweights are launching initiatives to overturn the
post-Americanism and isolationism. Former Democrat Senator Joseph Lieberman and
former Republican Senator Jon Kyl founded the American Internationalism Project
in the AEI. The objective of this project is not to act receptively to
multiplied threats, including terrorism, Chinese expansionism, nuclear
proliferation, and so forth. More affirmatively, the Internationalism Project advocates
US commitment to build a world based on American ideal of liberal values. Whether
liberal or conservative, there are numerous American think tanks and civic
organizations that advocate US commitment to world peace and prosperity. The
focal point is that venerable and influential politicians take leadership to override
fiscal constraints, psychological fatigue with overseas intervention, and isolationism.
Japan’s national interests must be identified with those of such far-sighted
and conscientious people.
Of course, it is also important to promote
Japan’s interests through specific lobbying channels. In this case, Japan must
find allies for specific objectives among ethnic, religious, industrial, or any
other kind of groups in the United States. Successful alliance with those
groups will help Japanese influence advance, and make it taken positively among
the American public. For example, pro-Israel lobby is an alliance of Jewish and
evangelists. Fear of Arab terrorists is widespread among the American public,
and particularly in both groups. Sharing common awareness, Jewish and
evangelists are strongly united to make their voices heard in American public
opinion. Similarly, Koreans and Armenians formed a solid alliance to build a
comfort woman statue in Glendale, California. Koreans and Armenians have common
historical perception that they were repressed by Japan and Turkey respectively
(“Glendale approves Korean 'comfort woman' statue despite protest”; Los Angels
Times; July 10, 2013). For Japan, Indian Americans may be a potential ally
against Chinese influence, because Indians and Chinese compete high skill brain
jobs. Also, their home countries are geopolitical rivals each other.
What I mentioned here are not the only way
to maximize Japan’s voice in the American political corridors. In any case,
whether to take a broadly based globalist approach or narrowly focused specific
alliance approach, excessive dependence on the Japanese connection shall not
expand Japanese influence. America’s primary allies such as Britain and Israel
use various channels, and they combine those methods. As other state and
non-state actors upgrade their approaches to the United States, Japan needs to
do so accordingly.