Impact of Hatoyama's reforms
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However, the sweeping policy corrections pushed forward by Hatoyama over the past half year have been met by harsh critiques at home and abroad. That will possibly prompt the new government to forge a considered and more mature foreign policy.
Due to growing doubts among the public over his diplomatic approach, Hatoyama's domestic approval ratings have been declining drastically since he took office. The opposition has even cast doubts over Hatoyama's US policy and the EAC program, arguing that such a policy would put Japan on the opposite side of the world's sole superpower, which has been Japan's staunch ally as well as its effective security umbrella.
The importance attached by the DPJ to Asia and China and its stance of extricating Japan from decades-long disputes with other Asian countries are expected to transform Sino-Japanese relations and improve bilateral cooperation.
Under the backdrop of the global financial crisis and joint efforts to push for better global governance, China and Japan are expected to become mutually integrated in the economic sphere, and "green cooperation" will turn into a new area of further bilateral cooperation.
The DPJ's security policy will serve as the chief variable in Sino-Japanese relations. Political and security issues have long come in the way of a smooth relationship between the two neighbors. Whether or not China and Japan can handle possible disputes in this regard will decide how far they can go in advancing bilateral friendship and cooperation.
Both China and Japan are currently undergoing enormous changes in their social and economic landscapes, and thus, both remain particularly sensitive about changes in their national status. Therefore, it is unavoidable that the two countries may sometimes choose the path of confrontation in bilateral development strategy and geopolitics.
After more than half a year of reform campaign, signs have emerged that the ruling DPJ will likely inherit its China policy from the LDP, which pursued larger economic cooperation with China even while holding a cautious attitude against its neighbor in the political and security realm.
In Tokyo's National Defense Program Outline due to be revised within the year to guide the country's defense and military development in the next 10 years, whether China will be considered a nation that Japan should take precautions against still remains unknown.
During diplomatic and defense consultations between Japan and the US in February, the two countries still focused bilateral talks on deepening their bilateral alliance and aimed their cooperation at (containing) China.
Besides, the so-called China's democracy and human rights issues and bilateral territorial disputes in the East China Sea still pose as challenging issues that the DPJ-led government has to handle in developing its ties with China.
The author is director of the Institute of Japanese Studies under the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
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