EDITORIAL: Kan's summit diplomacy

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's bilateral meetings with his U.S., Chinese and Russian counterparts in Yokohama represent only a first step toward rebuilding Japan's diplomacy.

Kan must not miss the opportunity created by the series of fence-mending meetings. He needs to immediately start developing a comprehensive diplomatic strategy for his administration and repairing his diplomatic machinery to pursue the strategy.

Japan's relations with China have been strained by the recent row over the Senkaku Islands, while its ties with Russia have also chilled due to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Kunashiri Island, a part of the disputed Northern Territories.

Against this diplomatic backdrop, Japan hosted this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The gathering, attended by the leaders of both China and Russia, offered a great opportunity for the Kan administration to end its series of diplomatic blunders.

It's regrettable that Kan's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao was very brief. But he must build on this wobbly beginning to improve the bilateral relationship.

First, Kan met with U.S. President Barack Obama and made clear the cornerstone of Japan's diplomacy by confirming the need to deepen the bilateral alliance.

Kan then held talks with Hu, the first official meeting since the Senkaku incident took place in early September. The top leaders re-affirmed the importance of the bilateral relationship based on mutual strategic interests.

Next, Kan expressed a protest to Medvedev about his Kunashiri visit and explained to him Japan's basic stance toward the issue of the Northern Territories. Kan also told Medvedev that he would seek to solve the territorial dispute and conclude a peace treaty with Russia.

The Kan-Hu meeting was announced just 10 minutes before it began as efforts to realize the talks continued until the last minute. Unlike Kan's last two meetings with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, which were described as informal chats, the Kan-Hu meeting was pronounced as a formal summit, although the time was limited to about 20 minutes.

The Chinese side apparently faced a delicate and tricky political decision, given the strong anti-Japan sentiment among the Chinese public.

The fact that attention was focused on whether Kan can meet Hu speaks volumes about the serious state of affairs between Japan and China at the moment.

There is still a long way to go before the bilateral relationship is fully repaired. The only way forward is to move slowly and steadily, starting with step-by-step efforts to improve the environment for the promotion of human exchanges between the two countries--which the two leaders agreed on.

As a factor behind the hard-line stances China and Russia have taken toward their respective territorial disputes with Japan, many pundits have pointed to the cooling of the Japan-U.S. relationship over the issue of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture.

Kan and Obama agreed to draw up a new joint statement to express their commitment to deepen the bilateral alliance. It will be an important process of rebuilding the foundation of Japan-U.S. relations.

But China, a leading engine of global economic growth, is now an important economic and political partner for both countries. The promised deepening of the alliance should not be intended as a move to counter China's rise. Tokyo and Washington should not forget that they have an important role to play in persuading Beijing to fulfill its responsibilities for the international community as a major power.

People in Okinawa are firmly opposed to the relocation of the Futenma base within the prefecture, making it difficult to implement a bilateral agreement on the issue. Kan must never repeat the same mistake as his predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama, who failed to take a broad view of Japan-U.S. ties because of the issue of one military base.

The two governments need to deal with this delicate issue with even more cautiousness than before.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 14