Japan Foreign Relations Asia

New Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sought Friday to allay fears in Asia about his hawkish views, saying his nation must learn the lessons of its imperialist past. In his first news conference since being elected prime minister, Koizumi reached out to neighbors who have expressed anger over his support for official visits to a controversial war shrine and calls for a wider military role for Japan.

It was a simple gesture lasting a few minutes at most Monday--an entrance and a bow--yet it provoked a tidal wave of anger in Japan and throughout Asia, even inciting 20 South Koreans to chop off their little fingers. Wearing a morning coat and trailing a few steps behind a Shinto priest clad in a beige robe and a glittering black hat, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi climbed a set of wooden stairs in a 132-year-old shrine commemorating Japan's 2.

In a gesture likely to trigger fresh acrimony between Japan and its Asian neighbors, 27 conservative lawmakers from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday warmly endorsed a controversial new movie about Gen. Hideki Tojo, the infamous Japanese prime minister who was tried and executed as a war criminal after World War II.

New Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sought Friday to allay fears in Asia about his hawkish views, saying his nation must learn the lessons of its imperialist past. In his first news conference since being elected prime minister, Koizumi reached out to neighbors who have expressed anger over his support for official visits to a controversial war shrine and calls for a wider military role for Japan.

As news came from Tokyo that Japan's ruling coalition was breaking apart, imperiling new Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata's tenure, leading experts on Japan and Asia were meeting in Los Angeles to hear author James Fallows talk about his new book, "Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System."

The images flash across television screens all over the United States: Tall, gregarious President Bush bounds past an honor guard to grasp the hand of Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita. The two men exchange warm greetings. They are still smiling broadly as the camera cuts to the next scene.

Yuko Kurihara, director general of the Japan Defense Agency, said he has assured Chinese officials that there is "no possibility" of Japan again becoming a military threat in Asia, despite efforts to strengthen Japan's defense capabilities, the New China News Agency reported. Kurihara spoke at a news conference in Beijing after two days of talks with top Chinese officials, including Defense Minister Zhang Aiping.

It was a simple gesture lasting a few minutes at most Monday--an entrance and a bow--yet it provoked a tidal wave of anger in Japan and throughout Asia, even inciting 20 South Koreans to chop off their little fingers. Wearing a morning coat and trailing a few steps behind a Shinto priest clad in a beige robe and a glittering black hat, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi climbed a set of wooden stairs in a 132-year-old shrine commemorating Japan's 2.

During the 1960s, Japan's economic miracle brought the nation to the brink of environmental disaster. Thousands of Japanese were poisoned by mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances that found their way into the air, water and food. Tokyo's skies were a smelly yellow haze. An explosion of public anger late in the decade, however, initiated a flurry of legislation in 1970 that forced Japanese industry to become among the cleanest in the world.

According to Yoshiji Nogami, deputy director of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's foreign policy bureau, it "doesn't matter" that his country will make no major proposals nor even attract much attention when Asian and Pacific leaders gather in Seattle on Friday. "There is no need (for Japan) to take initiatives," he said. "In whatever is proposed, in the end, Japan cannot help but play a major role" if the proposal is to succeed. "If you exclude Japan from Asia, what do you have left?

After nearly two decades of debate over how Japan's citizens and neighbors might react, parliament has given the thumbs up to in-flight refueling of the nation's military aircraft. The addition of four refueling aircraft to Japan's Self-Defense Forces will expand the range of its 203 F-15s, which are now limited to flying about 2,500 miles. This will put most of East Asia and potentially the Middle East within range.

In a gesture likely to trigger fresh acrimony between Japan and its Asian neighbors, 27 conservative lawmakers from Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Monday warmly endorsed a controversial new movie about Gen. Hideki Tojo, the infamous Japanese prime minister who was tried and executed as a war criminal after World War II.

Fifty years ago, the first atomic bombs fell on Japan, ending World War II and rolling up the khaki-clad legions of Japanese troops who had imposed a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" from the Aleutians to the islands off Australia to the frontiers of India. But today the Japanese are back on the march, and a new co-prosperity sphere has emerged. Built by corporate cadres in dark suits, their loyalty shifted from the country to the company, it dwarfs anything imagined by wartime leaders.

From Japan's government ministries to Tokyo's trendy youth districts, the scent of change is unmistakable: Japan--an unquestioned ally of the United States for half a century and a passionate student of Western learning--is looking to its Asian neighbors, the East. The end of the Cold War eased the need for security ties with Washington, and Asia's spectacular economic ascent has intensified national debate over Japan's fundamental interests.

As news came from Tokyo that Japan's ruling coalition was breaking apart, imperiling new Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata's tenure, leading experts on Japan and Asia were meeting in Los Angeles to hear author James Fallows talk about his new book, "Looking at the Sun: The Rise of the New East Asian Economic and Political System."

According to Yoshiji Nogami, deputy director of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's foreign policy bureau, it "doesn't matter" that his country will make no major proposals nor even attract much attention when Asian and Pacific leaders gather in Seattle on Friday. "There is no need (for Japan) to take initiatives," he said. "In whatever is proposed, in the end, Japan cannot help but play a major role" if the proposal is to succeed. "If you exclude Japan from Asia, what do you have left?

From Japan's government ministries to Tokyo's trendy youth districts, the scent of change is unmistakable: Japan--an unquestioned ally of the United States for half a century and a passionate student of Western learning--is looking to its Asian neighbors, the East. The end of the Cold War eased the need for security ties with Washington, and Asia's spectacular economic ascent has intensified national debate over Japan's fundamental interests.

Fifty years ago, the first atomic bombs fell on Japan, ending World War II and rolling up the khaki-clad legions of Japanese troops who had imposed a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" from the Aleutians to the islands off Australia to the frontiers of India. But today the Japanese are back on the march, and a new co-prosperity sphere has emerged. Built by corporate cadres in dark suits, their loyalty shifted from the country to the company, it dwarfs anything imagined by wartime leaders.

During the 1960s, Japan's economic miracle brought the nation to the brink of environmental disaster. Thousands of Japanese were poisoned by mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances that found their way into the air, water and food. Tokyo's skies were a smelly yellow haze. An explosion of public anger late in the decade, however, initiated a flurry of legislation in 1970 that forced Japanese industry to become among the cleanest in the world.

The images flash across television screens all over the United States: Tall, gregarious President Bush bounds past an honor guard to grasp the hand of Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita. The two men exchange warm greetings. They are still smiling broadly as the camera cuts to the next scene.