The History of US-Japan Relations by Makoto Iokibe

Author:Makoto Iokibe [Iokibe, Makoto]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Singapore, Singapore
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Continuity and Change between the Ikeda and Satō Governments

In November 1964, when Japan was basking in the glory of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and coming to terms with the shock of the nuclear weapons test by the Chinese, Ikeda was forced to step down as the result of illness. He appointed Satō Eisaku to succeed him as prime minister, putting aside the rivalry that they had developed in their bitter contest during the summer 1964 election over the LDP’s presidency. Like Ikeda, Satō was a former high-ranking bureaucrat and a member of the so-called “Yoshida School,” protégés of former Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru. While Ikeda’s action therefore appeared as proof that ultimately Ikeda and Satō were woven from the same thread, Satō had labored hard to obtain this position through his own solid performance and achievements as a senior politician.

The relationship between Ikeda and Satō was characterized by a mixture of shared principles and diverging approaches, a combination of both cooperation and rivalry. This permeated throughout the LDP-led politics and diplomacy of the time and it also revealed itself in Satō’s choice of cabinet members. On the one hand, Satō embraced in his cabinet Fukuda Takeo, who had harshly criticized Ikeda’s economic policies, labeling Ikeda’s administration the “Showa-Genroku” era—a reference to the Genroku era in the seventeenth century, a period that had been marked by great affluence but ultimately ended in high inflation and financial crisis. In Satō’s cabinet, Fukuda was given an important position, making him a rival of Tanaka Kakuei, who had served as finance minister under Ikeda, and indicating that Satō had shifted the direction of politics from Ikeda’s liberal economics to anti-communist political conservatism.

The paramount importance accorded to US–Japan relations was the most common point shared by Ikeda and Satō. Japan’s international status rose through a partnership with the United States along with an assortment of significant benefits. The effort to sign the 1965 Basic Treaty between Japan and the Republic of Korea was initiated by Ikeda and finalized by Satō as a response to repeated demands from the United States. Another culmination of efforts from both cabinets was the establishment of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 1966.

Commitment to economic development and stability in Southeast Asia was another crucial tenet of postwar Japanese diplomacy, beginning in the Kishi administration and continuing throughout both the Ikeda and Satō administrations, as well as with the Fukuda Doctrine of the 1970. In this regard, Japan maintained steadfast and stable relations with Indonesia by making a sustained effort to persuade the Sukarno administration to take an alternate course when it leaned toward Communist China and by providing support for its economic reconstruction. More broadly, Japan’s establishment as a postwar economic powerhouse—in essence, the materialization of the Yoshida Doctrine during the Ikeda administration—had a ripple effect in Southeast and Northeast Asia from the 1960s onward. During his tour of Southeast Asia, Ikeda was clearly cognizant of this as he referred to the roles that Western Europe and the United States

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