Armitage visits Tokyo

Armitage Gets Promise of Japanese Help in Iraq--By Not Asking

Deputy Secretary of State Rich Armitage exhibited his mastery of the Japanese art of asking by not asking, while his Japanese hosts responded by promising without being asked, for help in a war with Iraq, Japanese reports said. In a two day visit to Tokyo that ended today, Armitage saw Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda, Foreign Minister Kawaguchi, Defense Agency minister Ishiba and others. Asahi and others said he repeated the mantra at every session that he hadn't come to "ask" for Japanese help--and what Japan does can only be decided by Japan itself based on its own national interest. But he did say that the U.S. did what Japan asked it to do the last time he visited, in August--to get the U.N. involved instead of going it alone against Baghdad. He added that Washington will go back to the U.N. to assess the results of the weapons inspections, and insisted that no decision has yet been made to attack, Asahi said. Fukuda said Tokyo had already decided to send an Aegis destroyer to the Indian Ocean fleet, and Ishiba added that Tokyo is thinking "from all angles" how it might help if there is a war. Vice Foreign Minister Takeuchi said Japan is considering non-military things like refugee relief and economic aid to surrounding countries. Asahi said over the weekend that Japan is considering a minesweeper mission in the Persian Gulf to remove any mines dropped by Iraq. When that came up in a session with LDP secretary general Taku Yamasaki and his two coalition colleagues, Armitage said it might be useful. But for Japan to send minesweepers while a war is on would certainly arouse domestic opposition to an act of "collective self-defense," banned by the current interpretation of the constitution, Asahi said. In the end, an official told the paper, Armitage made no concrete requests, but "made us feel as if it's our turn" to do some favors.