Japan must explore soft power options

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi looks to have made a good diplomatic debut, considering that she just took office.

- ΑΚΙΗΙΚΟ ΤΑΝΑΚΑ

She made her first solid step forward at summits associated with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Shortly after, she held a Japan-U.S. summit with President Donald Trump, where she seemed to inherit the good relationship between the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the U.S. leader.

To deliver on her policy goal of a "Japanese diplomacy that flourishes on the world's center stage," Takaichi will have to mobilize what she calls "the latent power and vitality of Japan and the Japanese people." What kind of "latent power" do Japan and the Japanese people truly have?

Looking around the world at present, only raw power seems to prevail. In the Palestinian territory of Gaza, the Islamist group Hamas recently accepted a ceasefire because it was weakened by Israel, which pushed forward with its destructive offensive despite global condemnation for "violating international humanitarian law."

The conflict in Gaza originally broke out after Hamas' surprise attack against Israel, in which it killed many Israelis and took hostages. The two sides then engaged in a clash of raw power, causing terrible sacrifices for those living in Gaza, and only recently have they finally agreed to the ceasefire.

President Donald Trump's tariffs involve no military power, but they instead entail the exercise of power through economic transactions. They are an attempt to change other countries' behavior by threatening to inflict economic damage if they don't listen. China, too, has often placed economic sanctions on countries with policies that it finds inconvenient.