The Japanese "get no respect, no respect at all." That trademark line from American comic Rodney Dangerfield certainly applies to the government of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Last August when I interviewed Koizumi in his official Tokyo residence, I asked him point-blank if Japanese troops really would be sent to Iraq, as U.S. President George W. Bush had all but begged. Though Koizumi looked me in the eye and said, unequivocally, yes -- it was only a question of when and how many would go -- I was not convinced.
Today, Japanese troops are now inside embattled Iraq, about 1,000 of them. This counts because Koizumi had to move a mountain to achieve even that modest level of deployment. Not only was the Diet forced into passing legislation to get around constitutional restrictions inhibiting forward troop movements, but the prime minister himself expended considerable personal political capital to overcome an unenthusiastic Japanese public.
And he had to confront the rest of Asia, which was unhappy, too. Having felt the crushing brutality of Japanese invasions and occupations during the last century, it was in no mood to cheer Japanese troop deployment to Iraq or anywhere else.