Liberal Japan

As everyone now knows the DPJ recently took control of Japan’s Upper House under the leadership of Ichiro Ozawa. Ozawa immediately made waves by saying he would not support the renewal of Japan’s Indian ocean operations, which have been going on since 2001 as assistance to America’s war on terror.

While many have criticized Ozawa for being inconsistent, including Japan’s own Defense minster Yuriko Koike [link], this is probably not the case.

Peter Ennis, who writes for the Oriental Economist, recently stated his opinion about this in the NBR’s Japan Forum [link].

He stated:

Some … have criticized Ozawa’s current stance in
opposition to the Special Measures law as depraved political cynicism in an
effort to depose the LDP, or craven coddling of more pacifist elements
within the DPJ. That is a fundamental misreading of Ozawa, in my view. Over
the years, Ozawa has been very consistent on defense issues.

Back during the first Gulf War, Ozawa was a big promoter of greater
Japanese participation abroad militarily. He was crucial to the drafting of
the basic legislative architecture that allowed for Japan to engage in PKO
operations (Cambodia, etc.).

At the time, Ozawa was so far out ahead of the mainstream LDP view that he
often was mistakenly labelled (by Japanese and American alike) as
‘hawkish’, perhaps even dangerously so.

Little noticed was that Ozawa, even back in those early days, was explicit
– explicit — in his insistence that Japanese participation in security
operations abroad had to be only in UN-authorized operations. The first
Gulf War was explicitly endorsed by the UN Security Council, as was the
peacekeeping operation in Cambodia.

As far back as 1996, Ozawa would privately talk with journalists about this
point, especially regarding Korea. He insisted that, in the event of a
Korea contingency, Japan could act only if the operations were
UN-authorized. An American-led operation on the Korean Peninsula, without
UN authorization, would be off grounds for Japan. When pushed on this
point, Ozawa stuck to his position. (I suspect he would ‘adjust’ his view
in real-world circumstances, but his starting point is clear.)

Over time, international and regional developments, plus domestic political
debates inside Japan, have combined to bring the issue of ‘collective
self-defense’ to the fore.

Suddenly, the formerly ‘hawkish’ Ozawa is now the ‘cynic’ or ‘left-leaning’
Ozawa, even though his view has been absolutely consistent for over 15 years.

This is an excellent observation, I think.