Japanese diplomacy faces formidable challenges in 2005, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. With momentum building for reform of the United Nations, this will be a crucial year in Japan's bid for permanent membership on the powerful U.N. Security Council.
This quest speaks volumes about Japan's spectacular postwar recovery. Yet a number of diplomatic anomalies remain, such as the frigid relations with North Korea. By contrast, ties between Japan and South Korea are warmer than at any time since bilateral relations were normalized 40 years ago.
Japan opened normalization talks with North Korea in 1991, but prospects for rapprochement continue to be clouded by the fates of Japanese nationals believed kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Five of the abductees and their family members now live in Japan, thanks to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's two visits to Pyongyang over the past two years. But the fate of 10 others, including Ms. Megumi Yokota, is still unknown. Pyongyang has added insult to injury by presenting remains it claimed were those of Ms. Yokota but which Japanese DNA tests later proved to be someone else's.