POINT OF VIEW/ Hitoshi Tanaka: Warped perception of U.S. really must change

At the Japanese Consulate-General in San Francisco there is an old photograph of a Japanese mission led by statesman Iwakura Tomomi (1825-1883), who played a prominent role in the Meiji Restoration of 1868. It was this city on the American West Coast that the mission comprising high-ranking officials of the new imperial government first set foot in 1871 to mark the beginning of a 12-nation tour to the United States and Europe. The members must have gasped at modern American civilization and its grand scale.

About 10 years ago, I served as Japan's consul general in San Francisco. When I stood before the gigantic Golden Gate Bridge, which was completed in 1937, I was awestruck. It made me wonder about Japan's decision to wage war against a country that was capable of erecting such an imposing structure.

After I joined the Foreign Ministry, I chose to go to Britain to study. While I was there learning about realistic policymaking and sophisticated approaches to foreign affairs, I came to develop a keen interest in how Japan should deal with the United States.

As a diplomat, I was stationed in the United States on two occasions. In Tokyo, I was assigned to the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau on three occasions and was directly involved in Japan-U.S. relations for a total of 12 years. During that time, I could not help but notice the warped ways in which Japanese tend to view the United States.

As far as security is concerned, Japan became emotionally dependent on the United States, expecting that when emergencies arise, it could count on the military superpower for help. It is true that during the Cold War era when the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, were at loggerheads, Japan had no means to defend itself and the United States protected it under the terms of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. The United States also helped Japan return to the postwar community of nations by supporting its efforts to join such frameworks as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the International Monetary Fund. But this served to heighten Japan's dependence on the United States.

Meanwhile, as Japan prospered and established itself as a leading economic power, people started to question the stance of the nation which was always submissive to the United States and call for a shift to a more assertive, independent entity. This sentiment was based on a kind of nationalism. A typical example is the book by Shintaro Ishihara, now governor of Tokyo, and the late Akio Morita, a co-founder and former chairman of Sony Corp., titled "The Japan That Can Say No" that attracted much attention during the early 1990s.

After Japan was defeated in World War II, there was no option to develop foreign relations on its own to be accepted as a member of international society. All it had to do was to rely on the power of the United States and passively react accordingly. On the other hand, some people started to argue that the situation had become intolerable. It is against this background that warped perceptions against the United States arose in Japan, which are marked by feelings of dependence and antipathy.

As a diplomat, I had always regarded the situation as unhealthy and destined to eventually cause serious problems. How can Japan and the United States develop an equal partnership and positively interact as independent nations? This question was always on my mind as I worked to strengthen Japan-U.S. relations.

I was involved in negotiations to liberalize Japanese markets during the 1980s, along with the 1992 enactment of legislation enabling Japan to participate in peacekeeping operations and the drafting of the 1996 Japan-U.S. Joint Declaration on Security and the 1997 review of the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation. In each case, as diplomats representing Japan, we took the initiative to do what needed to be done, instead of waiting for the United States to tell us what to do, because we wanted to build an equal partnership with the United States.

There are various terms to describe Japanese sentiments and ways of looking at the United States, such as shinbei (pro-American), hanbei (anti-American), kenbei (hatred toward the United States) and chibei (well-versed in U.S. affairs). If the Japanese did not care about the United States, there wouldn't be so many expressions.

Years ago, Japan reacted strongly toward the "Japan bashing" that had become prevalent in the United States. More recently, it has been worried that it is being passed by. The U.S. presence looms large in the minds of Japanese. This mental process is apparent both in politics and the media.

But it is time we stopped fretting over what the United States thinks of Japan. We should put an end to debating our relationship with the United States from a passive viewpoint. What is important is what Japan wants to do and how we think. If we took the initiative, we would no longer need such terms to define our relationship with the United States.

The same goes for our angst for "Japan passing," which apparently stems from a fear that the United States is attaching greater importance to China than to Japan.

But let's calm down and think. If U.S.-China relations become closer, such matters as a lack of transparency of China's military spending and legal systems and environmental problems would be put on the table. This would be also good for Japan. This is what I mean by not fretting over how the United States views Japan.

From now on, the Japanese people's view of the United States will change. I expect the thinking that the United States is almighty will gradually diminish. I teach at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Public Policy and know that the way young people look at the United States has changed. They no longer perceive it as a special country.

With the emergence of President Barack Obama, they regard the United States as an advanced democracy where an African-American can become president. More than anything else, instead of simply seeing the country as a whole as becoming stronger or weaker, they recognize its strengths and weak points in politics, the economy and other specific problems and functions. I wish more people in Japan would also come to develop such perceptions, which are far more realistic and healthier than before.

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The author, a former deputy minister for foreign affairs, is a senior fellow at the Japan Center for International Exchange and a practitioner professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Public Policy.(IHT/Asahi: May 14,2009)