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New year offers fresh chance for Japan and China
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-23 14:56
After a year in which relations strained to breaking point, Japan and China
have a chance to take a small step forward in 2006 with the departure of Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
After a year in which relations strained to
breaking point, Japan and China have a chance to take a small step forward
in 2006 with the departure of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
[AFP] |
Koizumi, the longest serving Japanese premier in a generation, insists he
will step down in September after five and a half years of breaking post-World
War II taboos, most recently moving to revise the pacifist constitution.
Koizumi enters 2006 closer than ever to US President George W. Bush and
unflinching toward Beijing, heading again in October to the Yasukuni war shrine
which China and South Korea see as a symbol of militarism.
"A new prime minister will always have an opportunity to make a fresh gesture
to improve relations. And I think Chinese leaders would also like to seize the
opportunity," said Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at the City
University of Hong Kong.
But however much it criticizes Koizumi, China may find
the next prime minister even less to its liking, with opinions hardening in both
countries.
The most mentioned possibility -- including by Koizumi
himself -- is Shinzo Abe, 51, a third-generation politician who made his name
talking tough on North Korea.
Abe was given the powerful chief cabinet secretary's position on October 31
when Koizumi elevated prominent hardliners in a reshuffle.
Much can happen in nine months, though, and some analysts see momentum to
choose a different type of premier who would repair relations with China, which
is Japan's largest trading partner.
Koizumi, with his love of offbeat photo-ops and passion for rock music, has
been phenomenally successful at home campaigning not on foreign policy, but on
shaking up the establishment.
He won a historic landslide in September 11 elections after purging from his
long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) the opponents of his signature
reform of privatizing the powerful post office.
"In the name of political reform, Koizumi completely shoved aside members of
other factions. I think those who have been suppressed will start fighting back
in the parliament session opening in late January," said Kaoru Okano, a
professor of political science at Meiji University.
The Bush administration will also quietly push for Koizumi's successor not to
antagonize China further, Okano said.
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