Thailand Prime Minsister Abhisit Vejjajiva, left, shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama before dinner at the ASEAN Summit on Saturday night.
REUTERS

Japan sees ASEAN at core of East Asian community, but stresses U.S. ties

Sunday 25th October, 06:16 AM JST

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NeoJamal at 10:03 AM JST - 25th October

Even bigger question, why are the Chinese part of the East Asian Community plan?
mareo2 at 10:47 AM JST - 25th October

Replace the presence of a superpower for keep the peace with the solidarity of regionalism is going to take a many years. Is building thrust and fellowship through increasing trade and the development of mechanisms for solve local disputes in place of ask for the goodwill of a strong guy that can be very busy with more urgent matters.
PepinGalarga at 11:19 AM JST - 25th October

China has pushed itself to create a major sphere of influence in Asia.

The US can't even keep its bases with its so called major ally, and China every day gains more and more influence and access to natural resoures. This access will ensure China's competitiveness for decades to come.

Hatoyama and the other guy in the pic look like they're about to be launched into outer space with those green shark skin suits. All they need is an alien mask and they would have the perfect Halloween costume...
Triple888 at 11:25 AM JST - 25th October

why are the Chinese part of the East Asian Community plan?

Have you been living in the cave?
Pukey2 at 11:55 AM JST - 25th October

Neo:

Even bigger question, why are the Chinese part of the East Asian Community plan?

Not sure, but it could be due to the fact that China is in East Asia. I'll go and look at a map, and I'll get back to you when I find out where China is located.
Azrael at 02:05 PM JST - 25th October

I don't think it'd be prudent to include the US in the East Asian Community.
captainjohann at 02:30 PM JST - 25th October

It is G2. China and USA. See how Obama will not even meet Dalai lama.Japan must militarise first and then earn its respect. Or Hatoyama must see again the Chinese 60th anniversary celebrations.
S7ro9kGm3aQ at 02:50 PM JST - 25th October

Japan is going to suffer the same problems the UK has with its Europe/US relationship.
apecNetworks at 04:33 PM JST - 25th October

To S7ro9kGm3aQ:

"Japan is going to suffer the same problems the UK has with its Europe/US relationship."

Bingoooo! That is very insightful. Japan is closely aligned to US interests and, historically very insular being detached as an "island state". Historically, if Japan does nothing special, they can be "players", but not necessarily "major players". Japan would have to make an "extreme effort" to shake off the mental constraints of history.

US could easily establish "observer" status in an East Asia Community, but the article intimates just how distant the US is in Asia - no major person w/ great stature who could step into the Community - Gen. MacArthur could have.

The US pumping up the PRC economy in the 1990's will be a legacy of gigantic proportions in the future - I knew it when they told me what they were doing, and I am privy to what is coming. So be it.
PepinGalarga at 04:35 PM JST - 25th October

I see everyone here is in general agreement that Japan needs to pull its own weight with regards to its regionl presence.

This by no way means to follow the right wingers stance and become an imperial power again. It also doesn't mean to sever all ties with the US and go it alone.

Japan doesn't have that many friends this side of the world, so it needs to take advantage of the new government to re-establish long withered relationships, such as ASEAN, Africa, Australia, Middle East, and other important trading blocs.

China is bringing a lot to the table when going to negotiate with these countries, "offering" to work on core infrastructure projects at a fraction of the cost of Japanese companies. This is also happening in Africa. China always tries to develop win-win deals. If the US and Japan don't hustle, they will be left far behind (even if they are technologically far superior).

The "Buy low sell high" mentality of the large trading companies here is a soon to be extinct animal. Very few of the trading companies are making any real money nowadays. There's gotta be something in it for the other countries as well. Japan and it's companies need to reinvent themselves in order to better integrate with the regional economic environment.
NeoJamal at 05:11 PM JST - 25th October

I asked:

Even bigger question, why are the Chinese part of the East Asian Community plan?

What I got:

Have you been living in the cave?

Not sure, but it could be due to the fact that China is in East Asia. I'll go and look at a map, and I'll get back to you when I find out where China is located.

Say that I did know my geography, I'd still be an idiot for asking JT this question.
pathat at 11:13 PM JST - 25th October

It is G2. China and USA.

This is the 20th anniversary of Shintaro Ishihara's, The Japan That Can Say No, and in it he proposes a U.S.-Japan G2 because they were going to basically run the world together as equals(at least for a while) with Japan's unassailable economic power and unique everything else which made it superior to the rest of the world.

Of course Ishihara was as wrong about most things in his book as he was in recent years about the Tokyo Shinginko and Tokyo's failed Olympic bid, to name a few of his monumental flops.

The relevant point here is that new Prime Minister Hatoyama seems to be living in LaLa Land, imagining that Japan somehow has the economic clout to push through a much more aggressive economic and geopolitical agenda in the rest of Asia, touting itself as Numero Uno.

It goes without saying that I support a Japan that is more independent of the U.S. on defense issues. Japan needs to do much more to defend its own territory using its own people to do the work.

But a lot of the other stuff I see coming from the DPJ since it assumed power seems like stuff concocted by a bunch of people hoping the good ol' days of a few decades will come roaring back.

They won't.
Seiharinokaze at 11:32 PM JST - 25th October

Seeing ASEAN at core of East Asian community and stressing U.S. ties may be counterbalance by Japan who is put on the defensive against emerging China. But I didn't know that PM Hatoyama's great-grandfather was a member of the secret society Genyosha. The concept of East Asian community is sometimes discussed in the context of Pan-Asianism which was advocated by Genyosha and others that supported and conspired with many secret societies in China to topple the government. Isn't that partly the reason why China is reserved about the advocacy of East Asian community rather than out of regard for the U.S. despite its overwhelming presence in the region in recent and coming years?
rogerbentham at 03:24 AM JST - 26th October

japan had better listen up to america, or else they're nothing without us.
wawawasuremono at 08:11 AM JST - 26th October

Say that I did know my geography, I'd still be an idiot for asking JT this question.

You've been posting on JT long enough to know already! it's a place where if you ask 'How long was the 100 Years War?' people will treat you like an imbecile. I'll give you a non-typical JT answer, the inclusion of China just shows how myopic and not-so-serious this EAC plan is. If you know the regional stats, it's not too difficult to find that 880 million residents of AEAN+3 countries apart from China would sooner find that combining their resources with other states to compete against the Chinese is better for their wellbeing.

Japan and South Korea have the technology and financial assets, Singapore has the human capital, Indonesia and Phillipines has the labour and land, Malaysia and Thailand have the manufactruring capital and raw materials. It's natural that these middle-power states that cannot pose an overwhelming influence over the other member states alone would bind together to leverage against the US and China.