Aso speech seen as giving Beijing new excuse to criticise
New Foreign Minister Taro Aso's vision of Japan as a 'thought leader' and a stabiliser that will bring peace and prosperity to the region has unpleasant echoes of the plan imperial Japan forced upon the countries it occupied in the 1930s and 40s, according to a Japanese professor.
'Some Japanese leaders are making increasingly outlandish statements, and feel they can get away with them, and it smacks of a very complacent attitude towards our Asian neighbours,' said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Kyoto's Doshisha University. 'It shows a total lack of sensibility of how they see us and, at worst, displays a 'so what' attitude that is highly unwelcome for Japan.'
In his speech yesterday, Mr Aso said Japan should reflect on the pain it caused its neighbours in the past and consider other countries as equals before stating that anger in Asia over visits by top-ranking politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine is merely a failure to 'have an identical recognition of history'.
Professor Hama also dismissed Japan's aims of becoming a 'thought leader' and stabiliser in the region if it was not even engaged with two of the biggest powers, China and South Korea. Talks planned for next week at the East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur have been cancelled.
'China and South Korea are not the only countries in Asia,' Mr Aso said. 'There are also a number of countries in southeast and southwest Asia that are our neighbours and our relations with them are good. That's where we can be a thought leader, a trail-blazer.'