I think that measures such as allowing flights between Tokyo and Seoul from Haneda Airport must be adopted to demonstrate concretely that Japan-Korea relations are improving.
The creation of a negotiating framework with North Korea was one of the achievements of Japanese foreign policy last year. Negotiations should continue while adhering to the system of cooperation with the U.S. and South Korea. Policy towards North Korea, however, is flawed in that domestic considerations are too prominent while an overall strategic view is lacking. As this relationship could be said to be the most important security problem for Japan, hardheaded calculation devoid of emotion is needed.
There have been no particularly outstanding failures in Japan's foreign relations with other countries, but neither have there been any special successes. The impression is of somehow barely getting through the various meetings without making a serious error. The high point may have been the breakfast meeting between Japan, China and South Korea at the ASEAN plus Three (Japan-China-Korea) Summit.
A long-term issue in Japan's foreign policy is how to overcome its inability to present a vision for the future. The failure of the WTO at Seattle was not specifically a Japanese failure, but neither were Japanese ideas hammered out forcefully. Here too passivity towards international initiatives due to domestic considerations is evident. The many issues to be dealt with include how to set up an Asian currency fund, how to promote the concept of a free trade zone with Asia, how to revive an inactive APEC, and how to foster the framework between Japan, China and South Korea established at the breakfast meeting. The latter half of 2000 is taken up with summit diplomacy centered on Asia, including the Okinawa Summit, APEC, ASEM, and the ASEAN plus Three Summit. It is to be hoped that Japan's foreign policy will also seriously hammer out ideas in the area of a future vision.
