US Election Brings On Fretting Season In Japan
Date
11/4/2024 7:06:32 PM
(MENAFN- Asia Times)
It's fretting season once again in Japan.
You see, Japan frets every four years when America chooses a new president.
(Americans fret too, but that's another story.)
Most observers believe the Japanese would prefer the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, over former president Donald Trump.
One main reason:
trump is“unpredictable” – even though you'd think that after four years of dealing with him, the Japanese had figured him out.
But perhaps for Japan unpredictable translates as the fear Trump might ask the Japanese – or, better said, their bureaucrats and foreign policy class – to do something they don't want to do.
Given that the United States is on the hook to defend Japan, and certainly after 60-plus years of the US-Japan Alliance, it shouldn't be a surprise that Tokyo might be asked to do a few things out of its comfort zone – and especially now that the threat from the People's Republic of Chine (PRC), not to mention Beijing's friends in Pyongyang and Moscow, is higher than ever.
Among Japan's other neuroses (regardless of who is in the White House) is the longstanding fear of“Japan passing” – the idea that a new administration might cut a deal with the PRC that leaves Japan out in the cold.
And there used to be fear of“Japan bashing” – blaming Japan for America's shortcomings – though that isn't heard so much these days.
And there's the deep-rooted fear that America lacks total commitment to defend Japan.
Thus the Japanese government's frequent insistence,
when top officials meet, on discussing“extended deterrence” – or in other words, America's commitment to use nuclear weapons to defend Japan.
Also on the list is fear of Japan being hit up for more money for“host nation support” for US forces in Japan.
This is Tokyo's particular worry when it comes to Donald Trump.
But that's also a distraction, if not irrational.
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