In many ways, the first visit in three years by a Japanese prime minister to the Gulf Arab states was groundbreaking.
Curiously, however, only one major daily in Japan carried an editorial on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida¡¯s recent visit to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. This came as a bit of a surprise to me, a former Middle East hand who worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Are the journalists ignorant? Do they still believe that Japan¡¯s policies toward the Gulf remain the same ¡ª that they only wish to secure energy?
Perhaps the answer is the latter. The editorial in a liberal daily titled, ¡°Japan and the Middle East: Seizing Change for Autonomous Diplomacy¡± was just as old-fashioned as ever. At the outset, the editorial was correct in describing Kishida¡¯s trip as ¡°a visit that will test the conceptual ability of Japan¡¯s diplomacy to face up to the tectonic changes under way in the Middle East.¡± Well, whether this is a true ¡°tectonic shift¡± or merely a ¡°tactical policy change,¡± as is often the case in the Middle East, may be a matter of debate.
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