Delhi-Tokyo Direct

The idea of significant Indian migration to Japan might no longer be a fanciful idea as you watch a new breed of Japanese leaders accelerate the pace of their nation8217;s history and violate long-standing political taboos.

A few days ago in Tokyo, Shinzo Abe, the savvy young leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and now designated the Crown Prince to succeed the present prime minister Junichiro Koizumi next year, was asked what his vision for Japan was.

Abe, who claims long aristocratic and political lineage in Japanese politics, surprised his audience that included this correspondent. 8216;8216;I want Japan to become so attractive that outsiders would want to live here and even seek citizenship8217;8217;.

This kind of statement would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Given the declining population and the need to bring in skilled labour from outside, Japan is now ready to contemplate large scale immigration. In comparison to Britain and Germany where foreigners in the labour force account for 3.6 per cent and 9 per cent respectively, they constitute merely 0.2 per cent in Japan.

Abe8217;s vision to make Japan attractive to foreigners is no longer shocking because of the radical political change under way in today8217;s Japan.

ENCOURAGING immigration is only one element of the sweeping political, economic and social reform that Japan is currently debating. It includes a discussion on allowing women to become monarchs. The immediate reason: Emperor Akihito8217;s two sons don8217;t have a male issue.

Above all it is about the determination of the present leadership to create a Japan that is no longer apologetic about is wartime past and become what many in Tokyo call a 8220;normal nation8221;, including in the military sphere.

Koizumi8217;s repeated visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine that honours Japan8217;s wartime dead, despite protests from much of Asia, signals a new conviction in Tokyo that the present generation Japanese can no longer be held responsible for the sins of their forefathers.

And that Japan has apologised enough in the last sixty years. While the talk everywhere is about the rise of China and India and its consequences for the world, it is Japan8217;s 8220;strategic breakout8221; that could radically alter the geopolitics of Asia and the global balance of power.

Under the leadership of Koizumi and his colleagues like Abe and the new foreign minister Taro Aaso, Japan is not merely shaking off the past political constraints imposed on it after the Second World War. The Koizumi political clan is also forcing long over due economic reforms on the rigid Japanese capitalist system. After dramatic economic growth in from the 1960s to the 1980s, Japan slowed down in the 1990s and it was widely assumed that Japan is the sick man of Asia.

Tokyo seemed incapable of breaking the domestic political gridlock built on a spoils system and adapt to the new challenges of globalisation. It is in this dismal backdrop that Koizumi emerged with a new political style as well as agenda. Resistance to his reform agenda was strong and seemed insurmountable.

Koizumi took the bull by the horns when he went for fresh elections after his postal reforms bill was defeated in the parliament. Few expected him to win the snap polls. After the stunning victory a few weeks ago, Koizumi and his conservative nationalist colleagues are bent upon an overhaul Japanese politics.

After the elections, much to the anger of China and Korea, Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine. Earlier this year, China encouraged street demonstrations against Koizumi8217;s visits to Yasukuni that even turned violent.

UNFAZED, the Japanese leader is now signaling that if China pushes Japan beyond limits, Tokyo was not averse to playing the nationalist card too. A hundred politicians together walked to Yasukuni emulating Koizumi. Heralding a newly assertive Japan, Koizumi has now packed his Cabinet with conservative nationalists.

In a formal speech last month before being appointed as the new Japanese foreign minister, Aaso proclaimed Japan as 8220;one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture, and one race, the like of which there is no other on this earth8221;.

Ironically, it has fallen on these young nationalists to simultaneously push for greater economic globalisation as well as a more assertive foreign policy. Nationalism is the pick axe that is being used to break open up hitherto prohibited spaces in the Japanese polity.

Last week, the LDP has now come up with a draft of proposed modifications for the so-called 8220;peace8221; constitution of Japan. The section in the Constitution on 8220;renouncing war8221; will be renamed 8220;national security8221; if the LDP amendments are accepted by the nation.

Even before the Constitution has been formally amended, Koizumi over the last few years has pushed through a variety of emergency provisions that allowed Japanese troops to be sent to Iraq. Japan also has a significant naval presence in the Arabian sea to assist the American operations in Afghanistan. Last week, Tokyo and Washington announced a new framework to guide the sixty year old US-Japan military alliance. Under the agreement Japan would accept more responsibility for its own defence and close military coordination with the US in dealing with regional conflicts.

The Bush Administration which has been egging on Koizumi to undertake all-round radical reforms has succeeded in transforming Japan from a passive military partner in Asia to an active one.

As American attention now gets riveted on the potential challenges from a rising China, strengthening Tokyo8217;s profile in the region is the natural first response. While China is seeing red, the die on the political revival of Japan as a major Asian power has been cast.

A new Japan is emerging before us. It has shaken off years of economic malaise and national defensiveness on the international stage. Unlike the rest of Asia, India has never had much of a quarrel with Japan8217;s past. Yet New Delhi has remained aloof from the seemingly endless possibilities that open up from Japan8217;s liberation from its past.

Besides the prospects for greater Indian immigration into Japan, new opportunities for economic partnership and security cooperation are there for the asking. If India chooses to pay serious attention to Tokyo, it will also find a natural partner in the creation of a new and enduring balance of power in Asia.