I may have assumed too much about Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's intentions regarding Japan's twin ambitions of joining the United Nations Security Council and renouncing its pacifistic constitutional governor, Article 9. From his statements in New York recently, Koizumi wants to have his cake and eat it, too:
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, stressing Japan's peace efforts but withholding mention of its restrictive pacifist Constitution, urged the United Nations General Assembly to give Tokyo a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council."We believe that the role that Japan has played provides a solid basis for its assumption of permanent membership on the Security Council,'' Koizumi said in his speech, delivered in English, on Tuesday. As examples of Japan's international contributions, the prime minister cited the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces in peacekeeping activities to East Timor and reconstruction efforts in Iraq.
Japan has been praised for its peace efforts abroad, but some say Article 9 of the Constitution, which bans the use of force to resolve international disputes, stands in the way of Japan gaining permanent membership.
While Japan contributes a yearly stipend to the United Nations only second to that of the United States — somewhat reflective of each country's standing in the global economy — the more important qualification, military capability, is critical to bridging the ritualistic, ineffectual Security Council with mutual defense and security alliances of tomorrow. As the free world needs America's leadership, America needs the free world's participation. Back in Tokyo, thankfully, the price of admission into geostrategy has not been forgotten:
Two Diet panels are set to recommend amending the Constitution in separate final reports due out in May, according to sources close to the panels. The two panels, both named the Research Commission on the Constitution — one in the House of Representatives and the other in the House of Councilors — are expected to include a statement in their reports on the need for constitutional revision, given that many members of the panels expressed views favoring an amendment, the sources said....The likely move by the panels to push for constitutional revision is apparently encouraged by the increase in the combined number of seats of the LDP and the Democratic Party of Japan, the country's largest opposition party, to more than 80 percent of all Diet seats. The DPJ also supports constitutional revision.
Public opinion, though broad in its specific wishes, is prepared to revisit the Daiichi Building. Koizumi should lead them in.