Japan: New Diplomatic Horizons, Old-Style Domestic Politics

Abstract

Diplomacy dominated the efforts of the Japanese Government this past year. Prime Minister Sato and Foreign Minister Miki sought to expand Japan's international role by embarking on a series of trips to engage in personal diplomacy. Sato traveled to Seoul at the beginning of July for two days of talks with President Park and Vice-President Humphrey. Miki attended the second ASPAC (Asian and Pacific Association) Ministerial Conference in Bangkok a few days later. From July 20-25, Miki was in Moscow for the first of what will be regularly scheduled Soviet-Japanese consultations. Sato thereupon visited Taiwan during the first week of September. He followed up that visit with two extensive trips to Southeast Asia and Oceania-Burma, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos' in late September, and Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and South Vietnam in mid-October. Ultimately both he and Miki made the hegira to Washington, D.C. Lesser-known Japanese political leaders also traveled extensively. If nothing else, it was a good year for Japan Air Lines. It is too early to render a definitive judgment on the meaning of these travels. Clues might be found in the records of the Foreign Ministry Conference held in Hakone in mid-April, but it will be some time before the contents are available. It would almost appear that Japan's political leaders may have been seeking to catch up with their businessmen compatriots who are ceaseless in their search for new markets. Their efforts and those of the Japanese workers have boosted Japan's Gross National Product to fourth place among the world's industrial powers, no mean achievement considering the devastated state of Japan's industrial plant twenty years ago. Nonetheless, political acumen and unity of effort on matters of foreign policy have not yet equalled the increasing sophistication of Japan's traders. Japan's indecisiveness concerning the international role she could or would play, insofar as fundamental differences between the basically proAmerican Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) and the basically neutralist Japan Socialist Party (JSP) are concerned, have become so well known that they are not in need of further exposition. Even within the LDP, however, some discordant strains at the highest policy-making levels have become noticeable. Sato's trips had the appearance of being primarily aimed at laying