From the Japan Times: DPJ faces dilemma as MSDF support grows.

     Opposition camp leader Ichiro Ozawa is facing his first big challenge since his party marked a historic victory in July's Upper House election — a widening gap between public support for Japan's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and his resistance to it.

     While new Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is calling on Ozawa for dialogue on the contentious diplomatic issue in the Diet, which reopened Monday, everyone is waiting to see how Ozawa can survive what critics are calling a "shrewd" trap set by the soft-spoken and more seasoned prime minister than his inexperienced predecessor, Shinzo Abe.

     Ozawa, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, is against a government plan to continue the refueling mission by Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels to support antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan on the grounds that there is no U.N. authorization for the naval mission. The special temporary law authorizing the mission expires Nov. 1.

     The public apparently backed Ozawa's argument several weeks ago, with a Kyodo News poll showing at the end of August that 48.2 percent opposed the continuation of the mission, while 38.6 percent supported it.

     However, after Fukuda took office Sept. 25, the trend has reversed, with 49.6 percent in the latest poll saying the government should continue the MSDF mission and 39.5 percent opposing it.

     This is reversal is due to two things, the utter comitment and resolve the LDP has shown and the politically brilliant move of obtaining the UN Resolution praising the JMSDF's mission in the Indian ocean.  Whoever came up with that play is a master, understanding and using the Japanese public's love of multilateral organizations to give the mission a huge amount of piblic legitmacy.  That will be difficult to overcome, as the Japanese man on the street wants his nation to be respected and admired in the brotherhood of nations, and perhaps even more so given Japan's past.  I would be willing to sya that the DPJ is going to have to except a new law allowing the mission to continue, and use what political capital they have to win concessions to advance other parts of their platform.

The JDS Mashu resupplies the USS Anzio in the Indian ocean. (USN Photo)

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