[Christian Caryl provides a timely, lucid and quite sobering summary of Japan's growing diplomatic isolation. Governed by an elite largely content to rely on the obviously asymmetrical partnership with the United States, Japan has made little serious effort to put behind it conflicts with its major neighbors China and Korea. The roots of these conflicts lie in Japanese aggression and colonization in the Pacific War. But they are repeatedly nourished by a noxious nationalism played out in successive Yasukuni Shrine visits by the Prime Minister and the continuing textbook controversy over the treatment of the war and war crimes. We believe that it is essential to locate these issues in relation to other material, political and diplomatic conflicts which keep the issues red hot. These other conflicts include territorial issues such as the Tokdo/Takeshima Islands (with Korea) and the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands (with China). The latter is made particularly explosive by the presence of oil and gas reserves in the region. Perhaps more important is the issue of Japan's military and geopolitical choices concerning the United States. The Koizumi regime's bet would appear to be that giving the US what it demands in Iraq (SDF forces) and especially on base issues (in Okinawa and the main islands), and lashing its security future to American military power, assures it diplomatic impunity in the region. Beyond its faults at the normative level, this America-first strategy appears particularly inapt at a time when other nations such as China and South Korea are gaining strength and reaching out far more proactively to neighboring states. The Koizumi regime's bet is one that may cost Japanese enterprises dearly in future contract bids in China, Korea and beyond. It assuredly poses a major obstacle to the achievement of a cooperative zone in Northeast Asia. Japan Focus]