Posted on: Friday, June 22, 2001

Editorial
Bush team handles Tanaka visit well

The Bush administration pulled out all the stops this week to welcome Makiko Tanaka, the first woman to head Japan's Foreign Ministry, on her first official visit to Washington, and that was smart diplomacy.

The reasons for this are many and obvious. U.S.-Japan ties arguably constitute America's most important bilateral relationship.

Out of the cacophony emanating from the new Koizumi administration in Tokyo, what the Bush team appears to be hearing are signs that Japan might be rethinking its traditional U.S.-centered foreign policy.

Important issues exist between Tokyo and Washington, of course, and the Bush team is late in getting around to taking them seriously. But that doesn't mean that the Japanese don't value the basic relationship every bit as much as Bush does.

As Bush found out in Europe, even our best friends don't appreciate strident unilateralism in policies that directly affect them. As Tanaka has enunciated, Japan is concerned about Bush's outright rejection of the environmental treaty signed in its ancient capital, Kyoto; it is genuinely worried about the regional implications — as yet little considered by Bush's team — of his insistence on a missile defense system; and it feels obliged to speak up for the security burden uneasily borne, to the benefit of both nations, by Okinawa.

There had been much speculation in Japan, as well as some wishful thinking among disgruntled Foreign Ministry employees, that the noise that might filter through to Washington would center on Tanaka as an inexperienced and undisciplined political appointee who would have to be sacrificed by the new prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, for the sake of the bilateral relationship. There were predictions and hopes that Secretary of State Colin Powell would refuse to see her.

Fortunately, Powell decided correctly to ignore the domestic tempest in Tokyo and treat Tanaka for what she is: Japan's official representative. After all, Washington even managed a decent reception in March for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who by then had been forced to resign in humiliation. (One difference: Mori's popularity rating at home was down to 6 percent at the time of the visit, while Tanaka's is nearly 90 percent.)

Tanaka's visit is intended to finish preparations for Koizumi's important June 30 summit at Camp David. Because Tanaka met with not only Powell, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, but Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush himself, Tanaka is sure to return to Tokyo with the message that Japan is very important indeed in Washington. That's as it should be.

Every close relationship is visited by differences; what keeps it close is a willingness to discuss them honestly and respectfully, and then compromise. Bush now has indicated sincerity; the question is how much he and Koizumi are willing to give up for the good of this crucial relationship.