DPJ s Policies on Asia and National Security

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1 DPJ s Policies on Asia and National Security Shadow Foreign Minister of DPJ Yukio Hatoyama 1. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your kindness of inviting me to this prestigious congress of Liberal International, though my party is not affiliated to it. And I am extremely honored to be given an opportunity to make a statement on behalf of my party. I highly admire the efforts given by Liberal International for the propagation and development of liberalism and democracy throughout our world. 2. The Democratic Party of Japan which I represent today is a party formed after the merge with the Liberal Party which was a member of Liberal International. Ichiro Ozawa, then the leader of the Liberal Party, is currently the Vice President of the Democratic Party. I have brought with me a message of friendship from Mr. Ozawa. 3. It was two years ago that the old Democratic Party and the Liberal Party were united. The merger helped sway the voters, resulting in two election victories in a row; one for the House of Representatives immediately after the unification and another for the House of Councilors last year. In those elections the number of votes the Democratic Party won beat that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In the last election of the House of Councilors the margin of votes was 20% more in favor of the Democratic Party. 4. Nevertheless we are not in government yet. That is because the third largest party, namely New Komeito which has its support base in one large religious sect, is in alliance with the Liberal Democratic Party. In the Japanese political scene, the government is controlled by the coalition of the second and third largest parties. 5. Since the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party 50 years ago, except for a short period of time, the LDP has always remained in power. The first president of the LDP was my grandfather, Ichiro Hatoyama. 41 years after, his grandson, that is me, founded the Democratic Party with other Diet members who shared the same vision. In fact Ichiro Ozawa also left the LDP 1

2 at the same time as I did, but it was only two years ago that the two of us joined hands. With the powerful opposition party looming over the ruling parties, a majority of voters are now turning to the Democratic Party as the political force to unseat the ruling coalition. 6. To put it another way, Japan has also entered an era in which two major parties compete for the government. The Democratic Party will make utmost efforts to be elected as the government party. 7. There are two major policy differences between the DPJ and LDP. First, the LDP still clings to the bureaucracy-controlled centralized system while the DPJ aims to construct a citizens-driven decentralized governance system. 8. Second, the LDP is over-dependent on the United States in pursuing Japan s foreign and security objectives, but the DPJ is more concerned with striking a right balance in Japan s relations with the US and Asian neighbors, with putting slightly more emphasis on the latter. In the economic policy area, the DPJ distances itself from the excessive laissez-faire approach and values the non-monetary worth of the economic wealth. This tells the DPJ s position is closer to the EU rather than to the US. 9. The current administration basically adopts pro-us foreign and security policies. Despite strong criticisms from many countries, the US and British forces made a preemptive strike at Iraq without being sanctioned by UN resolutions. The Japanese government immediately came out to express support for the US-British actions. The DPJ opposed the Iraq war. The DPJ recognizes the Japan-US security alliance as crucial. However, given Japan s misdeeds in the last war which should not be repeated at any cost, the DPJ considers it very important to be extremely careful in the use of force as a means of settling international disputes. This position dictates us to place UN decisions ahead of US decisions, when setting Japan s course of actions. In this context it is more than obvious that UN reforms should be promoted. 10. Here I would like to briefly touch upon the DPJ s policies on Asia and national security. Recently we witnessed a burst of anti-japanese sentiments in China and Korea. Japanese flags were burned and the building of the Japanese Embassy and some Japanese-affiliated supermarkets were damaged by acts of vandalism. The two countries denounce Japan that some 2

3 Japanese school textbooks gloss over Japan s wartime history. They are opposed to Japan s bid to be a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Although we acknowledge the disagreement, it does not make China exempt from taking responsibility for ultra-nationalist demonstrators acts of vandalism. Such unruly events may entail an undesirable outcome for the Chinese government as well. Having recognized possible dangers, Beijing tightened security against anti-japanese demonstrations, which helped calm down the situation. 11. However quietly the situation is settled, it does not obscure the fact that the anti-japanese sentiment keeps brewing as a result of Prime Minister Koizumi s official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine which enshrines the Class-A war criminals. The past administrations in Japan continuously failed to take necessary measures to remedy and heal the wounds of the victimized nations in World War II, which showed a sharp contrast with Germany. The DPJ considers it essential that Japan should sincerely reflect itself on the fact that its wartime actions inflicted pain and damage on the neighboring peoples and build its future course on the lessons learnt from the past. Therefore, when the DJP is elected to the government, we are fairly confident that Chinese and Korean grudges held against Japanese will ultimately disappear. 12. Some people argue that China is a military threat but improvements in the military capability to date have not yet constituted an immediate threat. The Sino-Taiwan relations will remain as they are unless Taiwan unilaterally declares independence. The anti-secession law that recently came into force in mainland China can be interpreted as a law to maintain status-quo. Thus it does not need to scare us in any way. Maintaining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait is the most desirable scenario for not only China and Taiwan but also all stakeholders including the US and Japan. In order to keep this balance, the EU needs to postpone lifting a ban on arms exports to China. 13. As China grows economically to feed its populace of 1.3 billion, it inevitably generates problems relating to food supply, energy and environment. We cannot exclude the possibility that China may stretch out its sphere of influence in order to secure food and energy supplies. Japan s claim to the 3

4 Senkaku Islands is being challenged by China, and there exists a dispute over the demarcation of the exclusive economic zones. However Japan does not consider the Senkaku Islands a territorial issue. It is because China started to claim its territorial right only after oil and natural gas reserves were discovered in the seabed close to the Senkaku Islands in the 1970s. Prior to that, Japan s claim to the Islands was not challenged by Beijing. However, China recently started exploration in the vicinity area. I am of the opinion that this issue should be handled in a way to avoid provoking tension between the two countries and joint explorations should be proposed as part of efforts to build mutual confidence. 14. Next I would like to talk about North Korea s bid to develop nuclear weapons and missiles. Pyongyang leveraged nuclear weapon development programs to outmaneuver the negotiating partners. Some experts view that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons some way or another but it has not fully developed the nuclear warhead technology. If so, a missile without a nuclear warhead will turn out less lethal. More problematic, however, is North Korea s posture to try to use the development of nuclear weapons as a tool to intimidate neighboring countries. Pyongyang should recognize the obvious outcome by the use of nuclear weapons; that is the inevitable demise of Kim Jong Il s regime. So, what we need to do is to persistently persuade Pyongyang to understand that the regime s interests are best served by negotiating out an agreement on abandoning its nuclear weapon development program. But in case these efforts end in vain, the parties concerned may need to bring the issue to the UN Security Council. 15. Between Japan and North Korea there is the unsettled issue of abducted Japanese nationals. Over 100 Japanese are considered abducted by the North Korean government over the past decades. As a result of Prime Minister Koizumi s two visits to Pyongyang, five abductees were brought back to Japan. But the remaining many others are still entrapped inside. North Korea s insistence that the issue has already been settled put the bilateral talks to a deadlock. It might be extremely difficult to solve this issue once for all, so far as the Kim Jong Il regime continues in the North. Given the issue of abduction being most sensitive for Japanese people, the Japanese government should not agree to the normalization of the bilateral relations unless the issue of the Japanese abductees is completely solved. But 4

5 worrisome is the awkward approach taken by Prime Minister Koizumi who looks like hastening to accomplish diplomatic normalization. 16. In words, I would say that, for the peace and the development of the Northeast Asia including Sino-Taiwan and the Korea Peninsula, the strong ties and cooperation of Japan, Korea and US standing for the liberalism and democracy are crucially important. 17. In closing I would like to emphasize that only the change of government can untangle the deep-rooted vested interests and bring about true reforms in Japan. 5