Japanese politics were never famous for their logic. But the fuss surrounding Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka plumbs new depths.
Tanaka is criticized as having no foreign policy. That is nonsense. Immediately on being made foreign minister she showed she would give strong priority to relations with Asia. On both the Yasukuni Shrine and history textbook issues, she showed deep sensitivity to the need for good relations with China and South Korea. She cast doubts on U.S. missile-defense strategies. By Japanese standards, this is a highly activist foreign policy.
But having unveiled her policies, she immediately ran into strong opposition from the Cabinet and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. In this situation, the rules say a foreign minister must remain silent about his or her own views, which she has done. To interpret that silence as lack of policy is to take white and call it black. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of colorblindness in Japanese politics, and we now discover the victims include even the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Yukio Hatoyama.