LONDON -- Here is a telling statistic about Japan's foreign policy that is little known in the West, and may not be widely known even in Japan itself.

Japan pays just under 20 percent of the whole United Nations budget -- 19.47 percent to be precise.

This is very much more than any other nation except the United States, and a visitor from outer space would assume that as such a major "shareholder" Japan would naturally have a key place on the "board" or executive body at the head of the U.N.