Commentary
Japan press out to get foreign minister
By David Polhemus
Advertiser Editorial Writer
TOKYO — To the uninitiated visitor, the storm swirling around Japan's new foreign minister, Makiko Tanaka, is truly bizarre.
And to Americans, at least, accustomed as they are to attempts at fairness in press treatment of public figures, the way Tanaka-san is being flayed in the Tokyo media is nothing short of appalling.
At first it appeared she had simply made a few rookie mistakes — nothing surprising to any American who watched Bill Clinton or George W. Bush in their first days in office. The gaffe most widely reported in the United States was her abrupt cancellation of a meeting with visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
The excuse offered was truly lame, something to do with Tanaka's having been overly "fatigued" and "panicked" at the amount of preparation required in a short time.
Judging from what has transpired since, however, one has to wonder what really happened and what she really said, because almost every day since, she has been quoted as having uttered some incredibly undiplomatic and harmful remark sure to jeopardize Japan's most important bilateral relationship, the one with Washington.
It looked as if Tanaka's credibility was shot, and she would soon be — in that lovely word Asians kept from the Brits — sacked. But things were not as they appeared.
Each story reporting a new damaging remark — always attributed to an unnamed and unplaced source — also carried a statement from Tanaka denying that she said any such thing.
Then the next day a new report would appear, describing a new, even more embarrassing Tanaka remark at the top of the story, followed by another Tanaka denial and then — at the very bottom of the story — a denial from the person to whom Tanaka reportedly had made yesterday's remark.
To illustrate: Tanaka was quoted as having expressed doubts about Bush's missile defense system to her Italian counterpart, Lamberto Dini. Another story had her saying much the same thing three days later to her Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer.
In the second story, Downer was quoted as saying he was so disturbed by Tanaka's sentiments about the missile system that he told her he would mention their conversation to an American diplomat.
Officially, Japan neutrally says it "understands" the Bush administration's push for missile defense; to say differently, her critics contend, is to undercut her nation's policy.
But in both stories, Tanaka denied having made the statements attributed to her. Now both Dini and Downer have denied that Tanaka said those awful things to them, and Downer said he never spoke about what she apparently never said to an American. Finally, the American, still unnamed, said he never heard anything from Downer.
But the stories continue. Tanaka had wanted to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell before the scheduled June 30 summit between her boss, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and President Bush. Unnamed Foreign Ministry sources were quoted as saying Powell was so disturbed by what he was hearing from Downer that such a meeting wouldn't be possible. The sources said it appeared Powell wanted to give Tanaka more time to learn her statecraft before meeting with her.
The U.S. State Department and the Japanese public have bought none of this kabuki. Tanaka is scheduled to meet with Powell Sunday, as originally contemplated, to set the table for a June 30 summit between Koizumi and Bush. And Tanaka's approval rating is now up to a stratospheric 87 percent. The public loves the idea that Tanaka is standing up to the immovable bureaucrats in her ministry.
"What other countries must think of the turmoil and mudslinging going on here should make Japan cringe," the Yomiuri newspaper said in an editorial this week. That's true, but omits half the story. Yomiuri's front page has led the attack on Tanaka.
It's clear enough that Koizumi's enemies in his party, the Liberal Democratic Party, are out to get him by making his foreign minister out to be an embarrassment to him. Certainly if the U.S. State Department had bought into the string of quotes attributed to her, it would have set back bilateral relations and Koizumi would have had to dump her.
A Japanese journalist confided to me that the major Japanese daily newspapers have political departments whose job is to promote the interests of their party — "newspaper geisha," he called them. They don't stop short of fabricating news, he said. What's not so clear is why Koizumi's own party wants to torpedo him at a time when his popularity is high and the need for forceful leadership is dire.
Now Tanaka, packing for her trip to Washington, says she intends to discuss friction over the heavy U.S. military presence on Okinawa and the missile defense shield with Powell. These are certainly subjects the Japanese public wants discussed.
It appears that simply succeeding in meeting with Powell is a victory for Tanaka, and likely will strengthen Koizumi's hand against their enemies. But no way will it make loyal employees of the Foreign Ministry bureaucrats trying to undermine Tanaka. So stay tuned.
Advertiser editorial writer David Polhemus recently returned from Asia as a Jefferson Fellow from the East-West Center.
