Bush's Japan Policy Lost in Translation

Expect discord as new PM arrives in US for weekend summit
By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 16, 2007 11:33 AM CST
Bush's Japan Policy Lost in Translation
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda waves before boarding a government plane at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007. Fukuda left for Washington for talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on his first overseas trip as Japan's leader. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)   (Associated Press)

As President Bush welcomes the third Japanese prime minister in 3 years to Washington today, a former Tokyo correspondent writes in the Los Angeles Times that current difficulties with arguably our most important ally stem from a fundamental Bush misunderstanding. W has confused Japan with the US's other "special relationship," he writes, and treated Japanese PMs as if they were Tony Blair.

In fact, cooperation on war efforts in the Mideast has been extremely difficult and politically costly for Japanese leaders. "The Japanese have been content to develop industrial muscle while leaving their defense in US hands," writes Michael Zielenziger, leaving Japan hamstrung with the bellicose Bush administration. As this weekend's summit should make clear, Japan has other goals, he writes: "splendid isolation and checkbook diplomacy." (More George W. Bush stories.)

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