Japan submissive towards China?

[thomas]

Interesting Taiwanese editorial calling Japan's position of submissiveness in relation to China humiliating. A voice that should be heard.

Self-possessed Japan needed

=> http://www.etaiwannews.com/Editorial/2002/09/25/1032916175.htm

 

[moyashi]

Why of course Taiwan would be saying such a thing.
Hell, Japan should be submissive, just the sheer number of people in China should be scary enough to keep you in a position of relative passiveness.

 

[thomas]

Still there's a difference between passiveness and submissiveness. Japan has no reason to feel inferior. It's about time they get their permanent seat in the security council.

 

[moyashi]

It's hard to reverse 2000 years of think.

 

[thomas]

Good point.

 

[thomas]

Japanese wary of China

Reported by the Washington Times, Sept. 27, 2002:



Japanese wary of China

Takehiko Kambayashi
The Washington Times

As Asia's two big powers, Japan and China, approach another turning point ・Sunday's 30th anniversary of normalizing their relations ・more and more Japanese eye the giant country next door with suspicion.

For decades, Japan has had trouble winning the trust of its Asian neighbors ・especially China and South Korea ・because of Japan's treatment of its World War II history. These days, however, it is China that faces an uphill struggle to earn the confidence of Japanese.

A survey conducted in late August by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's largest-circulation newspaper at more than 10 million copies a day, showed that 55 percent of Japanese said they distrusted China, while 37 percent said they were confident about that country. In a 1988 Yomiuri poll, 76 percent of Japanese said they were confident about China.

Last month's survey was the first time that the number of those who didn't trust China exceeded that of those who did, the paper said.

The growing skepticism among Japanese is attributed mainly to:

窶｢China's repeated criticism of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo dedicated to Japan's military war dead since the end of the shogun system in 1868, including 28 Class-A war criminals convicted by the Allies after Japan's defeat in World War II.

窶｢The May 8 "Shenyang incident," in which Chinese police entered the compound of the Japanese Consulate in that city and seized North Koreans seeking diplomatic protection there.

窶｢Japanese suspicion that financial aid from Tokyo was used for China's military buildup.

Bad press of China also is involved. This varies from reported crimes by Chinese illegal immigrants or crime syndicates; diet products from China linked to illnesses and deaths; and frozen spinach imported from China that reportedly contained an illegal amount of pesticide.

In July, Bungei Shunju, an influential Japanese monthly, ran a 109-page special package titled "Distrust of China," in which Japanese analysts discussed China, from its political leaders to exports. Some demanded that Japan be assertive, not apologetic, to mend its "distorted" relationship with China.

Some Japanese politicians fuel impatience with China. This scorching Aug. 15, 57 years after Japan's defeat, politician Katsuei Hirasawa of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a former police chief in Okayama Prefecture, made an emotional speech to a conservative audience at Yasukuni Shrine attacking Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who repeatedly had criticized Mr. Koizumi's visits to the shrine.

"Can we call it anything but their interference in our internal affairs?" Mr. Hirasawa asked his listeners. Like Mr. Hirasawa, more Japanese politicians and commentators have become impatient with what they call Mr. Jiang's obsession with history as he perceives it and his unrelenting criticism of the Japanese prime minister's visit to Yasukuni.

"It is outright interference in internal affairs," declared Tadae Takubo, a professor of international relations at Kyorin University in Tokyo. Yasukuni "is a place where we go to have a dialogue with those who gave their lives to our country. This is not a matter to which any third party at all can make objections."

More of the Japanese public has become aware that China has made Yasukuni Shrine and Japanese history textbooks diplomatic issues, said Mr. Takubo, an executive board member of the Japanese Society of History Textbook Reform, which produced the textbooks.

"Whenever China criticizes Japan concerning Yasukuni Shrine and the textbooks, Japan offers an apology," he said. "But China does not forgive Japan until it gives money."

As China's biggest donor, Japan has poured tens of billions of dollars worth of projects into China over the 30 years of established relations. This huge amount of funding, however, is largely related to Japan's vested-interest aid structure, some argue. The official development assistance (ODA) to China has been debated hotly in recent years. During fiscal 2001, which ended March 31, Japan's ODA to China was cut by 25 percent, the largest reduction since the aid began. It is widely expected that growing anti-China feelings as well as Japan's protracted economic troubles will lead Tokyo to cut aid to China again this year. A Foreign Ministry official said, however, that the Japanese government "has not decided anything yet."

Japan's normalization of relations with China came one year after President Nixon's surprise 1971 announcement that he would visit the People's Republic of China the next year, ending more than two decades of hostility toward the communist country. To catch up with U.S. policy, Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka flew to China in late September 1972, seven months after Mr. Nixon's visit there. The Japanese prime minister firmly shook hands with Prime Minister Chou En-lai at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, establishing relations on Sept. 29.

The late Mr. Tanaka was the father of Makiko Tanaka Mr. Koizumi's foreign minister until he replaced her early this year amid bureaucratic and political infighting. She also met with Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung during her father's five-day visit to China. Although many Japanese leaders long wanted to normalize relations with China, Japan could not have done it if the United States had not made the first move, many analysts have said. Soon after the 1972 milestone, Japan raised its international profile with its economic growth and prosperity

During the past decade, however, Asia's two big powers have appeared in stark contrast ・China, rapidly expanding its economy and wielding more influence on the world stage under strong-minded leaders, while Japan seems leaderless and rudderless with persistent economic troubles. Some observers say that Japan's irritation with domestic problems has helped generate anger toward China, which is catching up with the world's No. 2 economy.

"It's Japan's problem," said Katsuya Okada, policy chief of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, adding that Japan's growing dissatisfaction with China and the United States comes from "frustration that Japan has not been able to change itself."

Speaking of Japan's diplomatic ties with China, Mr. Okada and others point out a lack of government policy toward the big neighbor. Under Mr. Koizumi's leadership, "there has been no progress at all between Japan and China," complained Mr. Okada. "Koizumi is, after all, an amateur in diplomacy." How Japan goes about building a partnership with China is important, the opposition politician said. China is not an economic threat, but it offers Japan an "enormous opportunity since we have such a huge market nearby. We should consider how we can create a win-win relationship," he said.

Copyright © News World Communications

 

[Sunrise]

Thomas, can you please tell me what do you refer with submissivenes? is it the people, culture, economic power, goverment, health or military strength? thank you

 

[shiroma]

Japan Signals End to China Aid (BBC)

Japan's Aid to China Ends in "Near Future": Machimura (Kyodo)

 

[Eisuke]

"We eagerly look forward, therefore, to the emergence of a self-possessed Japan, insistent upon its policy-making autonomy and its equal stake in the maintenance of peace and security of all parties in the region."

This is just a matter of time before Japan is a normal country once again.

 

[acquiredtarget]

Nevermind wrong info

 

[Elizabeth]

"We eagerly look forward, therefore, to the emergence of a self-possessed Japan, insistent upon its policy-making autonomy and its equal stake in the maintenance of peace and security of all parties in the region."

This is just a matter of time before Japan is a normal country once again.

The only country Japan may not feel either inferior or superior to may be South Korea. That may be the only one it has ever felt equal to in its entire history as a matter of fact.

 

[Eisuke]

The only country Japan may not feel either inferior or superior to may be South Korea. That may be the only one it has ever felt equal to in its entire history as a matter of fact.

First of all the nation "South Korea" is quite a young nation and South Korea is under constant threat of attack by North Korea. As you can see here:
After Japan surrendered in 1945, the northern part of the Korean
peninsula was occupied by the Soviet army and the southern part by
the U.S. Army, with the 38th parallel serving as an arbitrary
military demarcation line drawn under a secret wartime agreement. The
Soviet Union refused to discuss the establishment of a Korean
government with a U.N. commission. In 1948 the Republic of Korea
(South Korea) was formed following the recommendation of the U.N.
General Assembly. In the same year, the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (North Korea) was formed, with Kim Il-sung as premier under
Soviet sponsorship.
United Korea is about 2 / 3rd the size of Japan.

 

[shiroma]

Followup

Japan Signals End to China Aid

China Says Can Manage without Japanese Aid

 

[Hiroshi66]

Its odd that Taiwan wrote this editorial.. isn't the Taiwanese nation pretty submissive towards the PRC? Maybe not submissive..rather..nervous?

Japan has nothing to be submissive about. If China invaded Japan.. the Japanese would lose, but the US would help..

 

[scotsboyuk]

@Hiroshi66

If China invaded Japan I think the U.S. would do more than 'help'. Any military aggression againts Japan by China would no doubt be in the context of a wider conflict involving Taiwan and/or North Korea too. The U.S., and likely NATO forces, would become involved in the war, the result, of which would almost certainly involve the defeat of China and/or North Korea, but with the possibility of massive human and material damage, not to mention the likely use of WMD.

 

[Hiroshi66]

That's true - I'm sure if China was to invade Japan.. it would make a pass at Taiwan as well.

 

[fugue]

Japan just issued a visa to the former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui. The Chicom government is obviously not happy about that and is demanding Japan to repeal its decision immediately.

 

[shiroma]

李登輝

Japan just issued a visa to the former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui.

Japan Issues Visa to Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui

Lee Teng-hui, former president with a Ph.D. degree in agriculture, has the best understandings of Japanese virtue; this is an interesting comment by him.

He happens to be a cosplayer too, article here.

 

[Hiroshi66]

Interesting. Japan should keep going. I don't know why they have to follow the US example and support the PRC.

 

[shiroma]

Dalai Lama to Visit Japan in April, likely to Strain Japan-Sino Ties






Related Page

 

[Hiroshi66]

Japan and Sino ties have really never been not strained, dont see how much this could change that or make it worse.

 

[jerry4]

wow, the poewr of (chinese) money....though i won't call it being submissive....

 

[bossel]

I remember, when the Dalai Lama visited Germany some years ago. The foreign secretary (Kinkel, from the previous government) shaked hands, but when the Dalai Lama wanted to put some symbolic scarf around his neck, he denied him to do this. Instead he simply took the scarf in his hand. He was scared to show too much affiliation. The power of Chinese money...
Wonder, how Japanese ministers will react in a similar situation.

 

[Hiroshi66]

Its ridiculous.

Now.. here's the big question... has the Dalai Lama ever visited the Chinese Republic? If he did visit it - I wonder what would happen?

 

[MeltdOwn_Akira]

Its ridiculous.

Now.. here's the big question... has the Dalai Lama ever visited the Chinese Republic? If he did visit it - I wonder what would happen?

political prisoner perhaps>>>...... :