Japan-US: Baseball, taxes and an
alliance By Richard
Hanson
TOKYO - Loony as it may sound, 150 years
of official relations between the United States and
Japan, starting with the 1858 Treaty of Amity and
Commerce signed in Yokokama, might well be summed up by
two constants in the lives of the world's two most
powerful economies: Baseball and taxes.
What is
also afoot, say astute observers of the two nations, is
a seachange in how Japan is beginning to view itself
after a prolonged period of economic and political drift
in its domestic affairs. What is emerging, reluctantly
perhaps, is a heretofore unfurled sense that Japan and
its major alliance partner, the US, are growing
perceptibly closer in perceiving each other's vital
national interests.
US Ambassador Howard Baker
dubbed the alliance "The Best Team", which is the title
of an essay that he wrote for the website of Japan's
ambitious (and so far politically unbeatable) Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi in honor of the festivities
that accompanied the anniversary of the Treaty of Amity
in the Port of Yokohama to the west on Tokyo Bay on
Wednesday.
"We increasingly eat the same food,
listen to the same music, and wear the same fashions,"
said Baker.
Among press pundits, the buzzword is
that Japan is currently in the midst of a "Japan
surpassing" phase, a term coined by American Ralph
Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for
Strategic and International Studies, a non-profit
organization based in Hawaii. The phrase itself is a
play on a series of other descriptions that have been
applied to Japan's ups and downs in the world's view
over the past couple of decades. Almost all of these
descriptions reflect the powerful grip that the US has
on Japan's perception of itself.
Tokyo trade
surplus led to US Japan bashing During the trade
surplus, or unfair trade era, the trend was toward
"Japan bashing" in the eyes of those who saw Japan as a
threat to America's interests when it faced economic
hard times. During what some called the lost 1990s,
after Japan's financial and property bubble collapsed,
Japan receded into the shadows of its former self. This
produced the term "Japan passing".
The Asahi
Shimbun's news commentator, Yoichi Funabashi, recently
documented the phase after "Japan passing" (Japan
surpassing), which some say would be more appropriately
called "Japan nothing". Mind you, these terms describe
changes in attitudes by the US.
Despite
objections, Funabashi says the term "Japan surpassing"
fits. In other words, "Japan is transforming itself into
a reliable ally that far surpasses US expectations,"
Funabashi writes. The key here is that Japan remains a
nation to be defined by perceptions formed from outside
of the country, which is a rather clever way of avoiding
clear definitions that translate into the Japanese
language itself. It is also a convenient way of taking
stock of what the world really thinks about what others
perceive. That, in turn, makes it easier to formulate a
genuine agenda for change.
Case in point is the
Treat of Amity itself. It was negotiated in such a way
that Japan was able to assess the full danger of the
threat posed by the Western powers, which had been
slicing up its mentor China.
Negotiations
leading to the 1858 Treaty of Amity and Commerce began
two years earlier when the US government sent a fleet
with powerful "Black Ships" to force the Tokugawa
Shogun's regime to open Japan to foreigners. The other
major European powers of the day soon negotiated their
own treaties with the badly weakened Shogunate, which
would fall in 1868, ushering in the era known as Meiji
and facilitating the modernization of Japan into an
industrial and military power.
Money, ideas,
leadership, personnel = success The arguments for
"Japan surpassing" are easy to discern. Money, ideas,
leadership and personnel are the keys to success, says
Funabashi.
Other signs of a changing Japan have
been listed, starting with a willingness on the part of
the government of Prime Minister Koizumi to stand up to
external pressure, including pressure from the US. In
more concrete terms, however, Japan has shown itself
willing to participate in the dangerous relationship of
being an ally of the US by sending troops to Iraq.
Funabashi ticks off the following points as
being factors behind this change:
Prime Minister Koizumi's leadership, and the
relationship of trust he has developed with US President
George W Bush.
The Persian Gulf War, which filled Japan a sense of
humiliation and taught it a lesson.
The North Korean threat and China's rise also shook
Japan. And based on these circumstances, the Japanese
people have developed a stronger determination to defend
their country and recognize the importance of the
Japan-US alliance.
The questions about Japan's
military and security resolve, however, are thorny ones.
The obvious question is how would Japan react if its
Self-Defense Forces in Iraq are attacked and killed by
terrorists? Another is what would happen if Japan were
attacked by terrorists, producing the same carnage that
resulted from the bombings in Madrid?
Focus
on baseball, not bombs The answers do not come
easily. That is why Japan is focusing on the opening of
the baseball season. Here is that peculiar national
sport imported from the US not too long after it was
invented. Japanese and American fans all hailed the
opening of the battles among trans-Pacific teams, whose
greatest starting players have been commingling at Major
League heights. Who could imagine the world's current
baseball idol, Hideki Matsui, the rookie hero of the New
York Yankees, returning to his home field "Tokyo Dome"
to trounce his old Yomiuri Giants team mates?
Meanwhile, late last year, the government's of
the US and Japan ratified the most important bilateral
tax treaty in three decades. The document slashes tax
barriers to trade and promises to stimulate economic
growth. Japan's major trading partners in Asia watched
the delicate negotiations, hammered into an agreement
last November, with a mix of anticipation and anxiety.
Japan makes no bones about its intention to use
the tax treaty as a model for the tax segments in
negotiating free-trade agreements (FTAs) just getting
underway, with Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand,
along with neighboring South Korea.
At the heart
of the US-Japan tax agreement is a drive to slash taxes
for international business. Japanese business, as
massive investors in the region, will be pushing for tax
relief. The US will be cheering them on.
Just
how these allies will fare is yet to be seen. But, as
the say in the game, play ball. (Copyright 2004 Asia
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