A recent opinion poll in Japan shows that 68 percent of Japanese believe that the United States and Britain should not attack Iraq. Yet, in debates in the Diet, neither Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi nor Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi utter anything more than tepid responses such as: "Japan cannot respond to a hypothetical situation"; "Japan cannot take a definitive stance without assessing the results of the inspections"; or "It is in Japan's national interest not to declare whether it supports the use of force."
But Japan can no longer afford to be silent or vague about growing global insecurity, as the crisis next door on the Korean Peninsula demonstrates.
Why is Japan so seemingly detached in international affairs? Japan has relied entirely on the U.S. for its security needs for over 50 years, and the Japanese government essentially believes that it has no option but to agree with the U.S. or to keep silent.