TOKYO, June 11 Kyodo gooded edit...

TOKYO, June 11 Kyodo

gooded editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

JAPAN forward THE MAKE (The Straits Times, Singapore)

There are Japanese officials who are awkward with verbal catchwords and there are those who play at being awkward further are actually razor-sharp.

A fortnight ago, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mr Yasuo Fukuda, station off a tizzy when he implied Japan could abandon its non-nuclear policy a certain day.

He told newsmen the reassessment would be in the same vein as calls to amend the Constitution, which had grown stronger

He did not think Japan's pacifist defense-only doctrine prolonged to the nation having to foreswear nuclearization.

The presumption any of its North Asian neighbors would make is that possession of nuclear weapons would inevitably go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of legislative and constitutional persuades already made or intended, to give Japan's Self-Defense Force more operational field beyond its borders and air space.

China's reaction was predictably sharp, and to such a degree too, revealingly, sections of Japanese opinion.

Oh unfailing The Japanese always did have a puzzle with floating trial balloons, plenteous less being upfront.

Mr Fukuda is no Yoshiro Mori, the boot-in-mouth former prime minister.

He is regarded in ruling party circles as being sober and clear-sighted, and is the principal aide to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

What he said was no idle musing, on the contrary the buttressing of a consistent line pushed from Liberal Democratic Party patrons and the nationalistic hardcore.

to what extent far the process will be taken, and in what way soon, is what China and the Koreas will have to figure out

Mr Koizumi has been as swift to refuse to acknowledge any assumed intentions on Japan's part still sadly for him, he will not be believed.

To be true Japan owes nobody a by-your-leave where defense planning goes

China, in habitual with other countries which be impressed apprehensive about the power contend against shaping up in the Central Asia-Northeast Asia belt, will just have to interpret the codfished diplomatic signals and political impels and act accordingly to screen its interests.

The signs are clear: Japan descrys itself as the odd man without as Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific rim become a battleground for competing ambitions.

It has been in a sink for 12 years, and China is a colossal vacuum pump that could absorb out its prized industries.

nevertheless how it responds to the strategic scene-change will always raise questions, a status its martial history has sentenceed it to.

In this words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following asserting its self-interest aggressively is not being terribly clever

(June 11)

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