Japan seeks expanded U.N. role

By Bruce Wallace
Los Angeles Times

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

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Koizumi has aligned Japan with regional powers Germany, Brazil and India in a campaign to promote themselves to the council full-time, a change that would dilute the dominance of the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France, the five permanent members.

All five have nuclear weapons and represent the alliance that won World War II. But Japan and its allies argue the Security Council must bring in new blood to reflect the post-Cold War world.

The Japanese government also argues that it contributes nearly 20 percent of the U.N. budget, more than any country except the United States and far more than the other permanent members combined. Koizumi is expected to argue Japan should have a say in the U.N.'s inner councils commensurate with the size of its checks.

"Japan's role in the United Nations has changed greatly from 60 years ago," the prime minister told reporters as he left Japan this week on a foreign swing through Brazil and Mexico before arriving in New York for a visit that will include his Tuesday speech at the United Nations. "There should be a role suited to Japan in the present age. Japan should be able to raise its voice."

Less inclined than most of his predecessors to be burdened by a hangover of war guilt, Koizumi has pursued a policy aimed at what Japanese nationalists call a return to "normal statehood."

The aim is to pull Japan out of its enforced modesty that followed the period of imperial swagger in the first part of the 20th century. Pursuit of Asian dominance resulted in Japan's crushing defeat in 1945, leaving it with an imposed constitution renouncing the right to go to war and with a foreign policy that deferred security matters to Washington, D.C.

While the alliance with the United States remains a cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy, Koizumi's four years in office have been marked by a chipping away at constraints on Japan's role in international affairs.

He has sent Japanese soldiers into the hostile environment of postwar Iraq on behalf of the U.S.-led coalition. And he has reached out to North Korea in a display of solo diplomacy, vowing to normalize relations with the authoritarian state.

The Bush administration has encouraged this diplomatic energy and has made clear it would like to see Japan amend its constitution to lift the awkward legal obstacle to joining international coalitions on security missions.

The administration points out that permanent members of the Security Council have an obligation to use force against threats to the global order, and that Japan must be capable of following suit if it wants a full-time seat.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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