:: Shingetsu Institute ::

SUMMARY OF EVENTS IN JAPANESE-ISLAMIC RELATIONS FOR AUGUST 2007

There were five major stories in August:

1) A remarkable array of people, led by US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer, led an attack on Ichiro Ozawa and the DPJ in order to compel them to reverse their opposition to the MSDF Indian Ocean mission.

2) The Japan-Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement was signed.

3) Foreign Minister Taro Aso made a visit to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories.

4) Defense Minister Yuriko Koike visited Pakistan.

5) Japan and Malaysia pledged “everlasting friendship.”

The first story was not only Shingetsu’s biggest story of August, but certainly the most important story out of Japan’s political world as a whole. It was too complex to fully summarize here, but basically it involved US policymakers pulling out all the stops to pressure Ozawa in remarkably shrill and threatening tones. However, Ozawa and the DPJ did not back down, and the Abe Administration itself was too preoccupied with its own desperate attempts to survive, including a last ditch cabinet reshuffle (Shingetsu Newsletter Nos. 692, 695, 696, 697, 701, 702, 704, 707, 709, 720, 722, and 724).

As the main event of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s tour of Southeast Asia he signed the long-awaited Japan-Indonesia trade agreement. This was billed as being something that would secure stable supplies of LNG for Japan, but uncertainties remained (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 716).

The main point of the third story seems to have been the desire to promote Tokyo’s “Corridor for Peace and Prosperity” initiative in the Jordan Valley. Aso was treated cordially, but it remained unclear if anything substantial was accomplished. However, Aso did quietly meet with representatives of Israel’s defense and aerospace industries during his tour (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 705, 713, 717, and 723).

Yuriko Koike was the most vocal member of the Abe Administration in counterattacking against Ozawa and the DPJ in August. She was adamant about the need for Japan to stay actively involved in the “war on terrorism.” During her visit to Pakistan, this was a theme that she returned to again and again (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 715 and 719).

The pledge of “everlasting friendship” came as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit on Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi. The visit was mostly uneventful and seems to have been focused on expanding business relations, and perhaps concerns about China (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 721).

Aside from the five major stories, the following smaller or more subtle events also occurred in August:

1) Tokyo offered more aid to Sierra Leone such as a new grant to upgrade electricity services (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 694).

2) As the Sudanese government allowed peacekeepers for Darfur debates intensified with Tokyo about the proper role for Japan, including the possibility of sending the SDF (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 698).

3) MOFA officials worked to ensure that Manila did not launch a new offensive on Basilan Island (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 699).

4) At the “Jerusalem Summit Asia,” held in Tokyo, several Israeli leaders asked Japanese Christian leaders to join them in an alignment against radical Islam (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 700).

5) The Democratic Party of Japan indicated that it might submit a bill in the upper house to cancel the ASDF Iraq mission (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 701).

6) Foreign Minister Mohamed Saleck Ould Mohamed Lemine visited Tokyo and received some promises of aid, but the visit was largely ignored (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 708).

7) Japan welcomed peaceful presidential elections in Sierra Leone (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 710).

8) Tokyo announced several new aid packages for Morocco in the sphere of the environment (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 711).

9) MOFA Vice-Minister Midori Matsuyama visited Baku as aid projects for Azerbaijan continued (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 712).

10) Governor Muhammad Ali Hassani of Iraq’s Al-Muthanna Province, who had been a close collaborator with Japanese forces when they were in Samawa, was assassinated (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 718).

11) Mitsui won a significant contract to build a diesel oil plant in Egypt (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 725).

12) Tokyo offered loans and grant aid to the transportation sector in Bangladesh (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 728).

13) Israel’s El Al Airlines won permission from the Israeli government to begin regular cargo flights between Tel Aviv and Nagoya (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 729).

14) The “Magnificent Ottoman Dynasty” art exhibition opened in Tokyo (Shingetsu Newsletter No. 753).