CIVIL CONFLICTS

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Fujimori's Second Divorce --
Why Japan and Peru are at Odds Over Resolving Crisis

By Yoichi Shimatsu

Date: 12-20-96

Japan's hunger for a prized Security Council seat and its desire to be seen as a world power compel its diplomats to seek a bloodless way out of the current hostage crisis in Lima. But President Fujimori's priorities are to quell the insurgency at any cost and he is not the type to cave in to pressure. PNS associate editor Yoichi Shimatsu, a Tokyo based writer, is former editor of the English language weekly Japan Times.

TOKYO -- Alberto Fujimori is going through a second divorce, this time with the land of his parents, Japan. Fundamental differences over how to respond to the hostage crisis in Lima have erupted in talks between the Japanese diplomatic corps and the tough-talking president.

The Fujimori Cabinet's priority is clear and simple: The insurgencies that nearly destroyed Peruvian nationhood must be quelled at any price as a precondition for economic development and political reconciliation. This directly leads to the conclusion that the Peruvian forces should storm the Japanese ambassador's residence, where hundreds of hostages are being held by armed guerrillas. The potential loss of human life in a rescue attempt, grievous as it may be, and any political fallout, shrink in comparison to the long-term costs of releasing 400 Tupac Amaru fighters for yet another round of civil war, in which thousands of Peruvians may be killed.

But the Japanese diplomatic corps, the main foreign supporter of the Fujimori government, is driven by a more complex set of priorities, all leading to a single objective: gaining a U.N. Security Council seat for Japan. The embassy cocktail reception in Peru, a "model" of Japanese overseas aid programs, was part of this larger mission of enticing international support for Japan's acceptance into the exclusive U.N. leadership circle. A massacre of ambassadors and their aides would, of course, seriously harm the chances of entry.

The first instinctive reaction in Tokyo has been to pay the ransom, as it has in every previous hostage or kidnapping situation. This time, however, Japan cannot so easily resort to its "checkbook diplomacy," which has proven so effective in appeasing Asian terrorists, bolstering regimes in Indonesia and Burma and influencing the White House. Offering money would be interpreted as a sign of weakness, a sure disqualification for a Security Council seat.

For this reason, Japanese politicians and bureaucrats have been seriously contemplating a rescue operation with a Ninja-style anti-terrorist squad. But to end honorably, the rescue mission would have to be Japanese-led, American-guaranteed and be completely successful with minimal bloodshed. This is wishful thinking, because the ambassador's compound is built like a fortress and now wired with explosives and defended by well-organized foes.

Japan, in short, has little recourse except to lean on Fujimori, with subtle threats to reduce aid in the future if he doesn't comply with a prisoner swap.

But the Peruvian president is not the type to easily cave in to pressure. The dissolution of his marriage proved that in spades. The incompatibilities that resulted in the annulment of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's marriage with first lady Susanna Higuchi extended beyond the bedroom. Higuchi, the daughter of wealthy Japanese immigrants, was much softer in her approach to politics, promoting dialogue with the poor and excluded and advocating the consensus-building style of the Japanese immigrant community.

On the other hand, Fujimori, despite his ancestral roots in Japan, is a man of the New World, more shaped by the rationality of his Western education and moral severity of his Catholic upbringing than by the Japanese propensity to compromise.

Meanwhile, the sun is setting on Japanese diplomacy. Japan cannot maintain for long its current level of foreign aid, the sop that buys international good will. Not with the combined debt of its national and local governments hitting nearly $4 trillion, equal to its annual gross national product, making the Japanese the most indebted people in the world. The deficit will balloon further since the economy is again slowing, the population is aging, and the tax base diminishing. The quest for a Security Council seat, therefore, has no appeal for Japanese taxpayers, who are being saddled with another tax hike in April.

By rejecting the vicious circle of extortion and payoffs, Fujimori demonstrates his understanding that nationhood and respect are won through will and sacrifice. Whether he can hold to that position is doubtful once the U.N. gets involved.

Regardless of the outcome of this episode, Fujimori's battle is not for some pragmatic interest but for his nation's soul. Compared with such a moral imperative, Japan's desire to be seen as a world power, the careers of a few hapless diplomats and small talk on the global cocktail circuit are mere vanities.