PRESS RELEASE
Abe Wants Independence from the U.S., and Is Getting It Through Putin’s Intervention
Jan. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)—Daisuke Kotegawa, a former Japanese Finance Ministry official and a global statesman, when asked by EIR what direction Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will take regarding his earlier push to dump the pacifist Japanese Constitution, answered that Abe’s primary motivation is "independence" for Japan. His effort to end the Constitutional ban on Japan taking part in foreign wars, Kotegawa said, which has guided Japan’s foreign policy since World War II, was aimed at ending Japan’s dependence on U.S. military occupation and the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
But now, with the December agreements between Abe and Vladimir Putin, Abe has been given the opportunity to assert independence through a new economic paradigm, rather than through a military policy, Kotegawa said. The Abe-Putin agreements call for joint development of the four contested islands (Kuril/Northern Territories, a territorial conflict which has prevented a formal peace treaty between Russia and Japan), along with extensive Japanese investments in the development of the Russian Far East. Through this process, Putin told the Japanese press, the two nations can build trust, based on real economic cooperation, just as Russia and China built such trust through development to achieve their strong partnership today.
Twice before, in 1956 and 2000, an agreement was nearly reached to divide the four islands. In both cases, the U.S. essentially demanded that Japan step away from the deal, and Japan capitulated. But the deal is now back on the table, based not only on good sense, but on extensive real development and trust-building measures, demonstrating that Japan is far less likely to accept U.S. dictates.
Kotegawa indicated that Abe’s LDP party has already put a hold on the plan for a constitutional change regarding their military posture.
Lyndon LaRouche noted today that the powerful case put forth by Putin in Japan has dramatically strengthened Japan as a viable sovereign nation, but he added that this process will also contribute to nation building in Europe, for nations to free themselves from the British imperial grip represented by the EU and the eurozone.
