The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan is one nation smaller this week, as Japan ordered home two warships supporting coalition forces in the Indian Ocean.
It wasn’t much of a contribution in the first place – especially from a close U.S. ally with the world’s second-largest economy and a population of nearly 130 million. But the mission’s end is the surest sign yet that Japan is slipping back into its 60-year pacifist daze – one that leaves it fundamentally unprepared to assert its legimate interests in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world.
The pullout came when Japan’s parliament refused to renew the post-9/11 “antiterrorism” legislation that authorized Japanese forces to play a supporting role in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, an otherwise dovish figure, had lobbied hard to continue the mission.
But opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa says that the mission violated the pacifist provisions of Japan’s post-WWII constitution – provisions that, if ever literally enforced, would be a quick ticket to international irrelevance.
Not that Ozawa wants that. He envisions Japanese forces with a proud role to play on the international stage – as U.N. peacekeepers, of course.
The backdrop here is Japan’s distaste for U.S. policy in Iraq – which, combined with the domestic blunders of Fukuda’s hawkish predecessor, has effectively stalled the previously growing movement for a rethink of the country’s institutional pacifism.
And that’s a shame.
There’s no reason why a sovereign and militarily open Japan would be expected to toe the U.S. party line. In fact, Japan’s emergence would likely reduce America’s need to deal directly with regional threats like North Korea.
But that hasn’t happened yet. In the meantime, Japan should have stood with its most important ally on a vital mission – as a matter of honor.