A Lesson in Skillful Diplomacy

While South Korea's Roh Moo Hyun insists on making an ass of himself in the international arena by issuing ludicrously intemperate remarks on the significance of Dokdo and Japan's supposed nefarious designs in maintaining its own claims to the worthless rock, Japan's Junichiro Koizumi gives an object lesson in how those who know their way around the realm of international politics handle things.

小泉純一郎首相は２５日、中国や韓国が首相の靖国神社参拝に反発し首脳会談を拒否していることについて「１つの問題があるから話し合いに応じないというのは理解できない。外国の首脳はすべて私の言っていることを理解している。『小泉さんは正しい』『中国、韓国はおかしい』と言っている」と反論した。

I translate:

On the 25th of this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi remarked, in regards to the rejection by China and South Korea of his proposal to hold a summit conference about his visits to Yasukuni shrine, "To refuse to agree to talks because of the existence of a single outstanding problem is impossible [for me] to understand. The leaders of all other countries understand what I'm talking about. They say 'Mr. Koizumi is correct', 'China and Korea are strange' ", he rebutted.

Then there's this:

さらに「相手のメンツもあるから時間がかかる。しかし、こういう時期が必要だと思う。将来、何でこういう問題で首脳会談を行わないなんておかしなこと言ったのだろうか、と後悔するときがあると思う」と述べた。

Translation:

Furthermore, "The other party has its pride, therefore these things take time. However, such a period is important, I think. In the future, I think it would be said with a sense of regret "wasn't it ridiculous that no leadership meetings should have occured due to such a problem?", he stated.

Now, you can believe what you like about the propriety of Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni, but what can't be disputed is that the measured, even somewhat sympathetic tone he put across here plays much, much better in the eyes of those who don't share Chinese and Korean grudges than do these countries' own routinely belligerent remarks. Furthermore, Koizumi has a solid point in stating that neighbors refusing to hold top-level talks over such a minor issue is ridiculous: if the Chinese and the South Koreans can talk with a Taiwan and a North Korea with which they are still respectively technically at war, then surely they can do the same with a Japan with whom they formally have peaceful relations. There are far more important disputes raging all across the world despite which leaders still manage to talk to one another, yet in East Asia we're supposed to think it reasonable that this one is a step too far even while North Korean commando raids, abductions and counterfeiting are nothing of the sort? Every time Japan's neighbors go ballistic over such minor matters, it not only gives the Japanese press all the ammunition it needs to paint Korea and China as hostile and erratic countries, but also provides Koizumi an opportunity to effectively do the same for international consumption through his unfailingly low-key responses - in short, he appears like a wise adult dealing indulgently with petulant children. This would be no big deal if it were mere theatre, but the reality is that such perceptions do count in the real world, and the likes of Communist China wouldn't be assiduously courting nations which recognize Taiwan if they didn't recognize this in other contexts.

Now, as for the propriety of going to Yasukuni, let me say that there seems to be a double standard at work here on the part of many critics of Prime Minister Koizumi: a visit to a privately run shrine by a leader who claims to be doing so in his own private capacity is supposedly tantamount to state worship of past war crimes, yet point out that he has not only stated that his intentions are nothing of the kind, but has himself apologized to the Chinese and the Koreans for said crimes on several occasions, and these same critics will tell you that those apologies "don't really count", as they "weren't made in an official capacity." It would seem that Koizumi's actions only count as being done in his official capacity when they can be interpreted as insults ...

PS: See Koizumi's response to Roh's Dokdo outburst. Especially touching is the following passage:

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Tuesday, "I'd like everyone to deal with the situation in a calm manner, based on the premise of establishing a friendly relationship between Japan and South Korea.

"It will be better off to think about the matter in a systematic, comprehensive and future-oriented manner."

Koizumi also urged the media to refrain from fueling the confrontation.

Don't you just love that last line? The man is a past master at a game at which Roh is handling himself like a drunken tyro.

Comments

[Chuckles]

It is extremely difficult not to like Mr. Koizumi. He exudes such a polished, sophisticated air - an air around which his Chinese and Korean counterparts look like hicks just recently railroaded into town. His personal character issues aside, Koizumi is simply one of the genuine world leaders out there today - and this is more of a testament to the virtues of Japanese culture than anything else. He seems almost Victorian in retrospect.

[...he appears like a wise adult dealing indulgently with petulant children...]

Spot on. Continental Asia's wankery over this issue has got to stop. This is simply emotional blackmail and everyone knows it. You know, Lil Junior refusing to eat his vegetables because of...whatever. And the sheer ludicrousity of this entire fiasco is that Koreans and Chinese actually wonder why foreigners seem to prefer the Japanese - the so called Japan bias.

[Jim]

"This is simply emotional blackmail and everyone knows it."

Victimhood pays, if you can con some sap into feeling guilty. I used to think that the cult of vitimhood was a peculiarly American scam, but obviously it isn't.

[Randy McDonald]

"Every time Japan's neighbors go ballistic over such minor matters, it not only gives the Japanese press all the ammunition it needs to paint Korea and China as hostile and erratic countries, but also provides Koizumi an opportunity to effectively do the same for international consumption through his unfailingly low-key responses - in short, he appears like a wise adult dealing indulgently with petulant children."

Is this, in fact, how Japan is seen in the press at large? I'm curious.

[Abiola]

Who's talking about "the press at large?" The average person doesn't give a damn about Korean-Japanese relations, assuming they can even find Korea on a map: to those who know enough to matter, there's no question that Japan seems like an oasis of sanity in a neighborhood of nationalist lunatics.

[Randy McDonald]

"[T]o those who know enough to matter, there's no question that Japan seems like an oasis of sanity in a neighborhood of nationalist lunatics."

What with exceptionally strict citizenship laws, the Japanese Prime Minister visiting Yasukuni to honour the souls of the dead including Japanese war criminals despite the Emperor's criticisms, and all that?

Question: Is Japan better than South Korea?

[Won Joon Choe]

Mr. MacDonald:

"Question: Is Japan better than South Korea?"

That's too loaded and vague as a question.

But I do agree with Abiola that nonpartisan observers of the various Korea-Japan conflicts agree that Japan comes off more rational and mature. You will get a good indicator if you were to peruse ex-pat Korea Bloggers who, if anything, ought to have greater sympathy for the Korean position.

[Abiola]

"That's too loaded and vague as a question."

Exactly, which is why I couldn't be bothered to respond to it previously. Even the suggestion that the Emperor has made "criticisms" of Koizumi for his Yasukuni visits betrays an amazing level of ignorance.

For some people, it is always 1937, every Japanese youth is a congenital militarist, the SDF is the Kwantung Army primed to rape Nanjing, and Tojo Hideki still walks the streets of Nagatacho ...