Japan Foreign Relations Myanmar

Secretary of State James A. Baker III arrived Tuesday for a meeting of Southeast Asian nations at which Japan is emphasizing more than ever before its differences with the United States, both on human rights questions and on defense policy. At the annual conference of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan seized the initiative by proposing an enhanced security role for ASEAN--a suggestion that met with a cool response from the United States.

Japan is pressing ahead with a troubling idea of how it and America should deal with the rest of Asia. Let's divide up our roles, Tokyo in effect tells Washington. You play the bad cops, and we'll be the good cops. You Americans make the threats, and we Japanese will distribute the rewards. You be the tough-guy superpower, and we'll run around as the sympathetic sugar daddy.

Japan is pressing ahead with a troubling idea of how it and America should deal with the rest of Asia. Let's divide up our roles, Tokyo in effect tells Washington. You play the bad cops, and we'll be the good cops. You Americans make the threats, and we Japanese will distribute the rewards. You be the tough-guy superpower, and we'll run around as the sympathetic sugar daddy.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III arrived Tuesday for a meeting of Southeast Asian nations at which Japan is emphasizing more than ever before its differences with the United States, both on human rights questions and on defense policy. At the annual conference of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan seized the initiative by proposing an enhanced security role for ASEAN--a suggestion that met with a cool response from the United States.