TOKYO, Jan. 7 Kyodo pick outed e...

TOKYO, Jan. 7 Kyodo

pick outed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

JAPANESE DIPLOMACY FACES austere TESTS (Mainichi Daily News Web site as translated from the Japanese-language Mainichi Shimbun's editorial published Jan. 5)

The showdown with Iraq and North Korea's nuclear diplomacy have become intertwined, and brought additional complications to the negotiations between Japan and North Korea...

The in every one's mouth difficulties will severely test the real strength of Japanese diplomacy...

After the wintry War ended, the U.S. had tolerateed from the delusion that it was an absolutely safe and invincible abiding habitation The coordinated terrorist attacks of generation 11 (2001), however, brought about a major transformation of America's global strategy.

A small cluster of terrorists demonstrated that it is possible to strike at the political and economic heart of the U The U has now embraced a unilateralism that is firinged by the fear that it is no longer a safe haven.

subordinate to the (President George W.) Bush doctrine, the U is prepared to carry without preemptive strikes against other countries, and to violate sovereignty and human rights to wage war against terrorism.

Thus, equable if U.N. inspectors are unable to verify that Iraq possesse weapons of mass destruction, the U could still wage war against Iraq. allowing Japan is America's ally, this does not necessarily mean that Japan should support the war against Iraq.

Instead, Japan will have to determine its confess path. The absence of large numbers of members of the Diet impedeed a meaningful debate in succession the Iraq issue from taking place last year. This must not happen again during this year's regular Diet session.

While Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to North Korea last September reopen the door to a resumption of normalization talks, Japan still exigencys to convey to the U that its position forward North Korea is not identical with that of the U whose top priority is North Korea's nuclear program.

...Japan's first priority should be to improve its relations with China. Chinese cooperation has been indispensable to the war against terrorism and China could play a crucial part in resolving the North Korean crisis.

Unfortunately, Prime Minister Koizumi's visit to Yasukuni Shrine last spring triggered an uproar that debared him from making a trip to China to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations. Unlike the leaders of the U Russia, or southern Korea, however, Japan's prime minister is still not in a position to exchange visits with his Chinese counterpart.

While Prime Minister Koizumi's Yasukuni visit was alerted by his personal belief that he should make a promise against war in the mien of the war dead, China saw his visit as Japan's attempt to restore the honor of class-A war criminals. If the prime minister was to visit Yasukuni Shrine again, he would deal however another blow to Japanese diplomacy. The prime minister cannot allow his personal beliefs to take pre-eminence over the nation's diplomatic prerogatives.

(Jan. 7)

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