The Japanese are more predictable than the uncertainties in Beijing.
But it is also true that Washington has begun to adopt a more friendly approach towards Beijing. Simply, because the cost for containing Asia's tiger is too high for Washington to bear alone. Besides China's ideology is incompatible with that of the United States. In my view, Washington is trying to tell Tokyo it has other alternatives if Tokyo does not tow the line [whatever it means]. This is a brinkmanship policy to keep Japan in check. However, what is becoming apparent from recent shifts in geo-strategic architecture in the North East is this： Japan can no longer use the China's card at will as it used to in the cold war days. This is a change in strategic games that Japan must realise. Neither is the Russian card of any use. While Japan could make use of Pyongyang's card, South Korea is more likely to call the shots. The big powers are more likely to listen to South Korea than Japan when it comes to managing the Big Brother in Pyongyang.
It could be argued that Japan's guarded views of China are not simply the result of Beijing's posturing about current economic roles or its past. But it is about the returns on Japanese investment in China - which are not paying dividends either in real economic terms or political terms. Japanese are beginning to figure that the economic relationship is one-sided. China needs the money and technology more than Japan needs a China market.
China-Japan relations in the future are likely to remain testy, tempestuous, competitive mainly one to rising nationalism on both sides. Japan must contain these feelings and must not allow the extreme right to dominate your foreign policy. What both nations should realise Asia must deal with the world and not allow two of its strongest powers Japan and China to go at each others' throats.
