hankyoreh

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga shake hands in Tokyo on Oct. 6. (provided by the Office of the Prime Minister of Japan)

Japan seems to agree with conservative Korean media outlets when they cite major diplomatic issues as evidence of the South Korea-US alliance becoming “damaged,” an analysis shows. This suggests Seoul will need to adopt a framework of “principled diplomacy” that prioritizes the national interest ahead of blind allegiance to the US, a strategy that aims to win Washington over in areas where the two sides disagree.

During a conversation on Oct. 6 with his US counterpart Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi reportedly responded to a request for Japan’s participation in Pompeo’s Clean Network initiative by insisting that Japan could “not participate in a framework that excludes particular countries.”

On Aug. 5, Pompeo called a press conference to declare that Chinese companies needed to be excluded from major projects involving communications networks, smartphone apps, cloud services, app stores, and undersea cables in the interest of “protecting the privacy of our citizens and our companies’ most sensitive information from aggressive interventions by malicious actors such as the Chinese Communist Party.”

But even Japan -- which the US considers the “cornerstone” of the Indo-Pacific region and its number one alliance -- spurned Washington’s request to join the Clean Network in consideration of the importance of China-Japan relations. Motegi was quoted as saying that he would “reconsider [participation] if the US revised its plan [along more moderate lines].”

The reason behind Tokyo’s determination was its conclusion that it can “no longer uphold its national interests simply through ‘allegiance to the US’ at a time when US-China antagonisms are intensifying,” the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported on Oct. 16. According to this analysis, Japan is similar to South Korea in viewing cooperation with its US allies as “unavoidable on issues that combine economic and security matters,” but predicting an “incalculable blow to the Japanese economy if economic ties are completely severed with China, a country where over 30,000 Japanese companies are doing businesses and many tourists travel on visits.”

Japan has adopted more or less the same position as South Korea on the matter of defense cost-sharing, which has developed into a long-term source of conflict with the US. Having previously engaged in difficult discussions amid demands from the Donald Trump administration for an excessive increase in its share of defense costs, South Korea has been unable to hold meaningful in-person negotiations since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in late February.

Unable to meet in person for meaningful discussions with the US due to the pandemic, the Japanese Foreign Ministry held two days of teleconferencing on Oct. 15-16 over splitting the cost of US Forces Japan for the five-year period beginning in 2021. After the meetings, the ministry announced that the two sides had “agreed to continue practical coordination efforts,” but many news outlets have been arguing that the increase the US is hoping for is “out of the question.”

Indeed, former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton demanded US$8 billion won -- more than four times Japan’s current share -- during a July 2019 visit to Japan. Relating the mood within the Japanese government on Oct. 17, the Nikkei wrote, “Japan’s share [of defense costs] is very large even in comparison with other countries. In its discussions, it will continue to argue that there is little room for any increase.”

The differences are similarly minimal in terms of Japan’s position on joining the Quad, a four-country framework (the US, Japan, Australia, and India) that’s part of Washington’s China-containment strategy. Conservative Korean media outlets have denounced the Moon Jae-in administration for its reluctance to participate in the Quad framework. Japan agrees on the idea of establishing a cooperative body to promote principles of democracy and the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific region, but has remained circumspect about the establishment of a collective security regime to “contain China” as the US has been calling for.

Indeed, during a campaign for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership on Sept. 12, Yoshihide Suga -- who has since become the prime minister -- argued that the creation of an “Asian NATO” could result in “‘us and them’ divisions within the region.” He also said that “if an Asian NATO is created amid the antagonisms between the US and China, it will inevitably turn into a network to contain China” and that this was “not right in comparison with the strategic diplomacy that Japan aims to achieve.” The US has yet to request South Korea’s participation in an expanded “Quad Plus” framework.

Japan’s equivocal stance was clear in introductory remarks at a meeting of Quad foreign ministers in Tokyo on Oct 6. Motegi avoided making any direct reference to China during the meeting, while remarking that “the existing international order is being challenged in many areas” and that “our four countries share the objective of strengthening a free and open international order.”

In comparison, Pompeo’s hardline remarks on China stood in sharp contrast with the other countries, including his claims that the COVID-19 pandemic was “made infinitely worse by the Chinese Communist Party’s cover-up” and that it was “more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the CCP’s exploitation, corruption, and coercion.”

By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]