The following column by Gerald Curtis appeared in the Nov. 2 editions of the Chunichi and Tokyo Shimbun, where Curtis has been writing a monthly column since April 1984.

What an Obama Presidency Means for Japan
By Gerald Curtis, Burgess Professor of Political Science; Director, Toyota Research Program

Chances are high that the American people this week are going to elect Barack Obama as President of the United States. If that happens, it will be good for the United States, for the world, and for US-Japan relations.

There are some people, especially in the business community and the LDP, who are apprehensive about an Obama presidency. Part of the apprehension probably is due to the fact that almost nobody in Japan knows him or knows what views he has about Japan. Since Japan has not been a factor in the presidential campaign, neither candidate has said anything about it in their speeches or debates.

Part of the apprehension derives from the belief that Republicans are better for Japan than Democrats. It is a mystery why this belief persists despite the lack of evidence to support it. Japanese bitterly criticize the US for the China shock administered by President Nixon, a Republican, for strong-arming Japan in the 1980s into adopting voluntary export restraints on automobiles, a policy adopted by President Reagan, a Republican, and most recently for the decision to take North Korea off the list of terrorist supporting states, a decision made by President Bush, another Republican. Among the most popular US Ambassadors to Japan in the postwar period have been Reischauer, Mansfield, Mondale, Foley, all appointed by Democratic Presidents.

The point here is not that Democrats are better for Japan than Republicans. The truth is that there has been continuity in US Japan policy regardless of whether the President has been a Democrat or Republican. Both Republicans and Democrats are basically committed to free trade and have been protectionist when domestic political considerations demanded it. Both Democrats and Republicans have stressed the importance of the US-Japan security alliance. And the next President will do the same.

There are several reasons why Japan should look forward to an Obama presidency. First of all, Obama is the first person to become President for whom Asia is not a far away region with which he has little personal experience but is an integral part of his life experience.

Almost all American politicians when they look out at the world do so by looking across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe and beyond. And this affects the way they think about “East Asia”, which is east of Europe but west of the United States. I am certain that when Obama looks out at the world he looks as much across the Pacific as he does across the Atlantic. Having grown up in Hawaii, where his friends were Asian Americans, and having lived as a child in Indonesia has had to give him a sense of intimacy with Asia that is unprecedented among American politicians. What knowledge he has about Japanese and Asian issues is not entirely clear. But he is a man of formidable intelligence and a quick learner, and when he turns his attention to Japan, I am sure that it will be with a unique sense of familiarity and empathy.

As President, Obama will seek to strengthen the US-Japan alliance. Like the Presidents who have preceded him, he will encourage Japan to do more to contribute to regional and global security. But the Bush Administration put too much emphasis on the military dimension of the relationship alone. Obama is truly a President for the 21st century. He understands that security involves military power and much else as well: protecting the environment, stopping global warming, preventing the emergence of pandemic diseases, raising the African continent out of dire poverty, developing new sources of energy and reducing energy consumption.

There are many ways in which Japan can contribute to these multi-faceted dimensions of security. I look forward to Obama as President working with Japan to harness its technological and economic strengths and the idealism of its people to contribute to the resolution of pressing world problems.
Many Japanese ask me what President Obama is likely to expect of Japan. It is the wrong question. Whoever is Prime Minister when the new President takes office next January should come to Washington with his own ideas and positive proposals to strengthen US-Japan relations. If Japan is able to produce such leadership and if Americans elect Obama to be President, a new and exciting chapter in US-Japan relations will begin.