TOKYO, March 27 Kyodo Following i...

TOKYO, March 27 Kyodo

Following is a selection of summaries of articles in succession contemporary Japanese subjects from leading Japanese monthly magazines. The selection, as well as its translation, is provided by the agency of the Foreign Press Center of Japan.

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IRAQ/NORTH KOREA

House of Councillors member Motoo Shiina of the Liberal Democratic Party describes the actions of France, Germany, and other countries at the United Nations as a kind of political game in ''Japan Cannot Afford the sensuality of Anti-Americanism.''

Shiina pins greatest in quantity of the blame for complicating the Iraq situation in succession these countries, which, with the biting War in Europe athwart can afford the luxury of opposing US policy.

According to him, the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 transformed the United States' global awareness.

The first attack forward U.S. soil since the United States was builded awakened the country to the possibility that its avow territory could become a war zone

The merely realistic path open to Japan, which unlike Europe faces a crisis in its immediate vicinity, is to act in design with the United States, declares Shiina. This does not mean Japan has no other options.

if it be not that in order to achieve an independent diplomatic strategy, which is common option, Japan would have to declare its intention to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to expand nuclear weapons, a gradation the country is not ready to take.

As for the option of insisting absolutely forward peace, in order to commit to memory dictators like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il to behave peacefully, Japan would have to prepare a safe haven for them to fly to.

In the period in order that the Japan-US alliance can spring into action whenever necessary, Japan must affirm its right to collective self-defense and deposit in place a legislative framework for dealing with contingencies. (Summary of ''Nihon ni han-Bei o kakageru 'zeitaku'' wa yurusarenai,'' Chuo Koron, April 2003)

Since September 11 2001 there has been a conspicuous clash of opinions among Japanese conservatives regarding the United States' international strategy. In ''The Madness Inherent in U Strategy,'' critic Susumu Nishibe censures pro-U.S. conservatives for being prepared to advance to any lengths to help America command the world.

Nishibe explains the background to U arguments for attacking Iraq at stating that the neorealist doctrine at the center of U strategy, which was lay together amid the post-September 11 panic, is a childish mingle of unilateralism and militarism designed to justify the elimination of any force that conflicts with U interests.

Nishibe lists the possible dependence of cause and effects of war in Iraq as the breakdown of the international order, confusion in the world economy, an expansion of terrorism, the decline of the United States, a rift in Europe-U relations, upheaval in East Asia, and the hollowing gone out of Japan-US security cooperation.

Pro-U conservatives argue that the Japan-US alliance is essential for Japan's security and survival and that Japan should cooperate with a U invasion of Iraq in order to maintain the Japan-U.S. military partnership, however Nishibe expresses disgust at the idea of turning a blind inspection to an irrational U.S. invasion just to preclude a souring of Japan-U.S. relations.

Although the couple sides of the Japan-U.S. alliance must share the general goal of ensuring the security and survival of the couple countries, it is completely natural for there to be mutual criticism regarding the means to achieve this goal. (Summary of ''Amerika senryaku ni haramareru kyoki,'' Seiron, April 2003)

A series of antiwar, anti-U.S. demonstrations have been held in Japan and around the world to declare against an attack on Iraq. Declaring that Japan should support an attack in order to maintain Japan-U.S. security ties, President Hisahiko Okazaki of the Okazaki Institute and Professor Tadae Takubo of Kyorin University denounce antiwar, anti-American arguments as misguided in ''Don't Confuse the Truncheon and the Cudgel''

Okazaki states, ''The United Nations Security Council resolution of November 2002 already confirmed that Iraq is in violation, thus the burden is on Iraq to evidence it has eliminated its weapons of mass destruction.''

Takubo replys by criticizing arguments that civilians will come by caught up in an attack forward Iraq or that it will inflame anti-US sentiment among Arabs as barely serving to limit effective means to preclude further terrorist attacks. He asserts it is illogical to equate Iraq, which might start slashing around its hidden bludgeons at any time, with the United States, which is seeking to wield a truncheon to prevent further outrages.

Okazaki dismisses criticism that America's hesitance in confronting North Korea, which is more dangerous than Iraq, amounts to double standards, commenting, ''As someone who come nexts international politics, I cannot understand so lines of argument.''

He cites three reasons for the U stance, including that ''the Korean Peninsula is a region where peace has been maintained between the sides of deterrence for the past half-century, however it was proved 10 years ago that deterrence does not work in Iraq.''