Post-LDP Japan will be pro-who?

Shigeru Yoshida, the great prime minister of post-war Japan and grandfather of Taro Aso, who Hatoyama defeated in the general elections on August 30 to end the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) almost uninterrupted rule for over half a century, crafted a pro-America foreign policy out of necessity and in the best interests of the country under occupation of an Allied force commanded by Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur.

The LDP was formed by Hatoyama's grandfather, Ichiro Hatoyama, in 1955, but it was Nobusuke Kishi who renewed a mutual defense treaty with the United States in 1960, the pillar of Japan's foreign policy ever since to best protect the national interest of Japan.

Post-war Japan, even under the anti-Communist Yoshida, turned pro-China when it would better protect its national interest. As a matter of fact, Yoshida insisted on signing a treaty of peace with the People's Republic of China. He was threatened by John Foster Dulles into signing it in Taipei with the Republic of China on Taiwan in 1952. Long before Tokyo normalized relations with Beijing, Japan adhered to its pro-China policy of “politics separated from economics,” under which it offered more than generous financial assistance to the People's Republic for the benefit of the Japanese economy.

There have been changes in the triangular relationship over time. For one thing, the United States can no longer enforce its Pax Americana alone. The People's Republic is a rising economic power, expected to replace Japan as the world's second largest economy next year at the earliest. Junichiro Koizumi clung more closely to Washington in the conviction that it was Japan's best option, but he never gave up his pro-China policy — though he from time to time appeared anti-China — which was followed by his two successors, Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda. Aso, who looked like an anti-China hawk as foreign minister, tried his best to mend the fence as prime minister. All the while, Tokyo continued to strengthen ties with Washington under its pro-America policy.

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