Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Thailand in January as part of his tour of Southeast Asian nations. I wish to discuss the significance of his visit and Thailand's reaction to it.

The prevalent view among Thai politicians and scholars who study Southeast Asia-Japan relations is that Japanese leaders generally do not regard the region with much interest. One of the reasons is attributed to the strong Japanese interest toward the United States, with which Japan maintains firm ties in terms of politics, the economy and security. Japan is trying to make a positive contribution to the U.S. war against international terrorism despite criticisms that Japan has little to gain. This attitude is also seen as a reflection of such close Japan-U.S. relations.

Some Thai politicians, including Senator Kraisak Chunhawan, think that since both Japanese and American politicians today share ``right-wing'' political backgrounds, their policy and behavior tend to follow the same course.

Koizumi's statement during his recent visit also revealed the low degree of interest Japanese leaders have toward Southeast Asia. I found the contents of the proposals he made during the trip to be disorganized and poorly prepared. Without exception, Thai journalists, researchers and diplomats think Prime Minister Koizumi's proposals were hastily put together.

Japanese leaders appear concerned that since China reached an agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to conclude a free trade agreement within the next 10 years, it might rapidly expand its influence in the region.

Japan may not like the idea of Southeast Asia completely falling under Chinese influence, but the same thinking is shared by ASEAN leaders, including Thai ones. While ASEAN leaders want to be friends with China, they are also afraid of it and want the presence of another major power in the region that can balance with China.

Another characteristic of Japan's ASEAN policy is the way it deals with each ASEAN country differently because it is overly cautious about its own advantages and disadvantages.

Japan and Singapore signed the Japan-Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age to promote free trade. Japan praises itself that it would serve as a model for similar free trade agreements with other ASEAN countries.

Japan deals with Thailand quite differently from the way it deals with Singapore. All it did with Thailand was to propose the formation of a comprehensive economic partnership to emphasize a long-term friendship.

Japanese policy has triggered criticism that it is causing a rift to develop among ASEAN countries. For example, Thailand's largest newspaper Thai Rat argues that Singapore's policy and the way Japan is backing it up is extremely dangerous to Thailand.

Singapore is an international trading center more than it is a manufacturer of products. Since Singapore alone signed a free trade agreement with Japan, there is fear that it will take advantage of the opportunity to boost its position as an ASEAN trading center even more. Such is the logic behind the criticism. Since trade between Thailand and Japan is regulated by tariffs, quotas and other factors, in the event that trade between Singapore and Japan becomes free, Thailand may eventually have to go through Singapore to export products to Japan instead of doing so directly. If that happens, the Thai economy could virtually be controlled by Singapore.

Thai political scientists attribute Prime Minister Koizumi's popularity among the Japanese people to his clear and frank speech and the way he speaks in concrete terms. Furthermore, the way he explains the background of problems is very convincing, they say. However, the language Koizumi used during his tour of ASEAN countries was by no means clear or concrete.

Traditionally, Thai political leaders harshly criticize domestic politics but refrain from openly criticizing major powers when it comes to foreign policy. That is why we cannot expect Thai political leaders to publicly voice their views about the Japan-Singapore Economic Agreement for a New Age or the concept of comprehensive economic partnership between Japan and Thailand at this moment. If we were to ask them what they thought, they would probably just say they are both good ideas.

But this is just how it appears on the outside. In whispered conversations, Thai politicians and their staff are harshly criticizing the Japanese method that it only attaches importance to Japan's profit and is causing ASEAN to split.

In the four to five years after the economic crisis that originated from Thailand, ASEAN countries looked to Japan to display strong leadership. For instance, they asked Japan to strengthen its relations with Asia and called for the establishment of an Asian monetary fund. But Japan was slow to react. As a result, ASEAN countries had no choice but to make an effort at solving their political and economic problems on their own. This situation helped China advance into ASEAN.

To Thai leaders, Japan is not only slow to react but appears to attach greater importance to bilateral relations than multilateral relations. It is time Japan re-examined its foreign policy.

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The author is associate professor of political science at Thammasat University in Bangkok. After graduating from the university's faculty of political science, he completed a master's degree in political history at the graduate school of Chulalongkorn University.