With the collapse of the Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein, the focus of international attention has shifted to the issues of postwar governance and reconstruction. The question for Japan is specifically what it should and can do in the rebuilding process -- a question that depends crucially on the extent of involvement by the United Nations.

The government's basic position is that international cooperation is essential to remaking a country ruined by wars and tyranny. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has repeatedly made statements to this effect in the Diet and to the press. Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi made the same point in her separate meetings with the German, French and British foreign ministers -- meetings that took place around the same time that Baghdad fell to the coalition forces earlier this month.

The Iraq war has left the U.N. Security Council virtually paralyzed, raising concerns about its ability to deal effectively with international disputes. Now is the time to restore normalcy to the Security Council and bolster the international system of cooperation. It is also time for Japan to reaffirm its twin foreign-policy principles that set store by the Japan-U.S. alliance and U.N.-centered multilateral cooperation. Along these lines Japan should try to help bridge the differences that exist between America and Europe, particularly France and Germany.