Meeting Was an Achievement

The only thing those three defense ministers agreed on was cooperating each other to face potential threat of North Korea. Defense Minister of Japan, Itsunori Onodera, had a meeting with US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, and National Defense Minister of South Korea, Kim Kuan-jin, taking advantage of opportunity of Shangri-la Dialogue, an international conference on security issues by ministers, in Singapore. The trilateral meeting held for the first time last three years also showed some problems among the parties. Most of them stemmed from Japan.

In a joint statement, three ministers agreed on the notion that three countries were going to cooperate for deterring further intimidation with the development of nuclear and missile technology by North Korea, recognizing those activities as serious threat to the world security. They also shared the importance of their cooperation for peace and stability in Asia-Pacific region and the world, agreeing on measures to deal with piracy offshore of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, promoting humanitarian aid and disaster relief, search and rescue exercise and anti-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

US concern on the rise of Japan’s right wing movement, however, has been casting shadow on Japan-US bilateral relationship. Although it did not appear at the trilateral meeting, what Onodera stressed at the speech in the conference was denying the negative aspect of US-Japan relationship. “There are criticisms of pointing Japan’s leaning on right and challenging world order. But all of them are based on misunderstanding,” told Onodera.

The fact is that Onodera is not affiliated to the same political group as PM Shinzo Abe in the Liberal Democratic Party. Graduated Matsushita Institute of Government and Management and later taught at a university in Sendai as a professor, Onodera has been regarded as a scholar-type dovish lawmaker away from hawkish group. Even how he tries to speak for Abe, it is not representing the policy of the administration. Although Onodera emphasized that current administration was following the standpoint of former cabinets on the apology over Japan’s responsibility in World War II, Abe had actually been refusing to make his attitude clear on this issue.

South Korea is highly skeptical about Japan’s attitude on interpretation of history. On the other hand, the Japanese are frustrated with South Korean leader’s attitude shown by the visit to disputed Takeshima Island by former President, Lee Myung-bak. With those negative diplomatic elements, two nations cannot exchange their top leaders for a long time. The only achievement in Singapore was reconfirming that their ministers could at least meet and spend a short time in one room, if only they would be talking about North Korea.