Speaker Stresses U.S. Role in Asia

The U.S. ambassador to Japan emphasized yesterday the strong role that

America will play in Asia in the coming century.

Relations between the two nations “have never been stronger,” U.S. Ambassador to Japan J. Thomas Schieffer said yesterday. In his first university visit since his appointment, Schieffer addressed a full audience in the Tsai Auditorium in CGIS South.

Schieffer discussed the major political, economic, and diplomatic changes taking place in Japan and the role America has played in them. “We are a Pacific nation,” he said, citing the enduring interest the U.S. will have in Japan’s sphere of influence in the future.

Schieffer identified the U.S. as the region’s strongest ally. He also gave the US credit for some of the changes occurring in Japan.

He described the extraordinary political developments of the last few years, such as the unprecedented privatization of Japan’s state-run postal service, as among the accomplishments of outgoing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Koizumi, who is set to end his term this fall, is leader of the Liberal Democratic Party.

But Schieffer attributed some of Koizumi’s succcess to an imitation of American political strategy.

Koizumi’s most recent landslide victory was a triumph of “an American style electoral candidate,” Schieffer said.

Schieffer also focused on Japan and the U.S. in the wider context of Japan’s neighbors—especially China, North Korea, and South Korea.

Among other things, Schieffer defended Japan’s recent approach to its World War II history. Even as he maintains his distance from Japan’s militaristic past, Koizumi has continued to visit Japan’s shrine to its war dead, generating criticism throughout Asia.

“Japan wants to press the ‘reset’ button,” Schieffer said, adding that it would be up to the nations who suffered under Japanese militarism to accept this sincerity and find the appropriate way to move on.

On issues of security in Asia, Schieffer said that, looking into the future, he saw no reason for U.S. and Japanese policy goals to diverge significantly.

Cautioning critics of the U.S. presence in Japan, he reaffirmed the value of American involvement.

“Peace in Asia over the last 50 years has not been in spite of, but because of, U.S. power,” he said.

At the close of the session, Schieffer stressed the advantages of the Japanese-American cooperation. “We just need a little imagination...to make the world a better place,” he said.