Friday, February 18, 2005 · Last updated 6:29 a.m. PT

Japan, U.S. to revise security alliance

By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

TOKYO -- Japan's foreign minister and defense chief reportedly flew to Washington on Friday to discuss a major revision to the U.S.-Japan security alliance that would for the first time identify tensions between China and Taiwan as a flashpoint in Asia.

The United States' security alliance with Japan has formed the backbone of American foreign policy in Asia since the 1960s. But the two allies have long disagreed about how to deal with China's territorial claim over self-ruled Taiwan, which split with Beijing amid civil war in 1949.

Washington has indicated it would intervene if China was to try to take Taiwan by force, while a cautious Japan has traditionally sought to avoid involvement.

But during talks Saturday in Washington, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld plan to adopt "common strategic objectives" that would include ensuring security in Taiwan and on the Korean Peninsula, the Kyodo News Agency reported.

Tokyo's shift on Taiwan would be a strong demonstration of solidarity with the U.S. position and would signal a more assertive Japanese stance in the region. The United States and Japan share an interest in checking China's growing military and economic clout.

Japan adopted new defense guidelines in December singling out China's growing military as a threat. That followed an incursion into Japan's southern territorial waters by a Chinese naval submarine that prompted Tokyo to put its military on alert for only the second time in half a century.

In a draft security document, the two sides describe hostilities across the Taiwan Strait and on the Korean Peninsula as "unpredictable and unstable factors in the region" that need to be addressed, Kyodo said.

The document, first reported in The Washington Post, would be the most significant change in the security alliance since 1996.

The document does not specify military cooperation between Tokyo and Washington to resolve the Taiwanese conflict, Kyodo said.

But it urges China to resolve the issue peacefully through dialogue and to be more transparent about the rapid modernization of its military, the report said. Beijing's military buildup in recent years is viewed by experts as a sign it is prepared to carry out its frequent threats of invasion if Taiwan declares formal independence.

But any moves by Tokyo to wield influence in Asia also could raise alarm bells in the region, where many remain wary of renewed Japanese militarism after its invasion and colonization of much of the region in the first half of the 20th century.

A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity that the Taiwan issue was being considered for the agenda of Saturday's meeting.

Taiwan's special envoy to Japan, Koh Se-kai, welcomed news of Tokyo's changing attitude.

"We're relieved that Japan has become more assertive," Se-kai said, according to James Tin, a spokesman for Taipei's Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan.

Japan has had formal diplomatic ties with China since 1972 but not Taiwan.

Relations between Japan and China already are poor despite ever-growing trade and investment flows between the two Asian powers. Recently, they have clashed over disputed islands in the East China Sea and competing rights to explore natural gas deposits.

At a previous meeting in December 2002, U.S. and Japanese officials issued a joint statement that only briefly touched on the importance of China's "playing a positive and constructive role in the enhancement of regional stability" without specifically mentioning Taiwan.

That was consistent with Tokyo's past unwillingness to endorse a proposed U.S. arms sale to Taiwan to head off a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

Japan will one day have to chose between the Americans or the Chinese to side with.

Does it not seem like they have chosen the Americans over the Chinese already?

remember that the Japanese are very patriotic and singular people even now. They were defeated by the US and the US helped their country rebuild so naturally, the Japanese feel an affinity with the US.

But that could change once history is forgotten and the old generation of Japanese dies.

Today's young Japanese don't particularly hate the chinese nor do they particularly love the AMericans even if their culture is very americanized.

Many Japanese still feel an allegiance and a cultural affinity with China, who once influenced Japan so. Not even the Japanese can deny that Japan was once a satellite state of China.

But by practical means, if China becomes the next superpower and with Japan being so near China, it would just be practical for Japan and China to cooperate.

The current road japan's walking, I'm afraid, is the set with the sun in the west. But i do not know whether we could trust china. The best thing japan could do is be independant and neutral, using good diplomacy to pacify relations with china at the same time maintaining good will with the US. But as expected some cheap mouths in japan's politics are offending a growing giant in too many ways.

But i do not know whether we could trust china.

The best thing japan could do is be independant and neutral, using good diplomacy to pacify relations with china at the same time maintaining good will with the US.

But as expected some cheap mouths in japan's politics are offending a growing giant in too many ways.

The Americans with their 'contaiment' policy of the growing Chinese power is blatantly a method of staving off the end of their time as the king of the hill.  Japan cannot be so blind to this.  They should not antagonize so greatly a superpower that is literally 300-ish kms westward. Im not saying for Japan to be China's b!tch, but to be cordial yet cautious of what they may do.  In 100 years,  all 1st and 2nd hand knowledge of those terrible times will have faded and perhaps friendship may even occur.

Japan needs to rearm. STAT. And kick out the yanks and start running her foreign policy that would suit her best.  Not what some pen pushers over in washington thinks.