By Takehiko Kajita

SINGAPORE, Jan 14 (Oana-Kyodo) -- An agreement between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) last November to form a free trade area (FTA) within 10 years was a wake-up call for Japan to reshape its policy regarding Southeast Asia.

During his tour of five ASEAN nations that began Wednesday, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi unveiled his far-reaching but somewhat fuzzy initiative to deepen economic ties with ASEAN, partly through the creation of an FTA.

The project, which also envisions signing pacts on investment, services, education, tourism, and science and technology, is intended to downplay speculation that Japan is losing influence in the region to its giant neighbor.

Koizumi also hopes the initiative will eventually bring together not only Japan and ASEAN but China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as well.

''Japan's ultimate goal is to create a community which acts together and advances together as sincere, open partners,'' he told Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, according to a Japanese government official.

But doubts remain about Koizumi's commitment to the region.

Since taking office last April, Koizumi has given top priority to strengthening relations with the United States (U.S.). On the other hand, he has created an impression that he is not interested in reinforcing ties with other Asian countries.

His visit last August to Yasukuni Shrine, where Class A war criminals are enshrined, strained relations with Beijing and Seoul until he held fence-mending talks with the top leaders of the two nations later in the year.

He did not seem to be giving much thought to ties with Southeast Asia -- until the China-ASEAN FTA plan emerged and concerns about Japan's future presence in the region were raised.

Koizumi is scheduled to flesh out his proposal in a policy speech he will deliver on Monday in Singapore, the last stop of his weeklong tour that also took him to the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

In the speech, he will reaffirm Tokyo's policy of equal partnership with ASEAN, which also includes Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, on the basis of ''heart-to-heart contacts.''

The approach, put forward in 1977 by then Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, the late statesman who was coincidentally Koizumi's political mentor, was timely as the Southeast Asian situation was fluid amid the Cold War and the turbulence in China in the wake of the Cultural Revolution.

And ASEAN -- then a group consisting of the five nations Koizumi is visiting this time -- had no one else to turn to for economic development as the U.S. had shied away from the region following the humiliating defeat in the Vietnam War two years earlier.

The so-called Fukuda Doctrine indeed cleared the way for Japan to elevate the relationship with ASEAN to a higher plane and increase its political and economic clout in the region.

However, the reason why the doctrine received kudos and became legendary is not simply because of its noble intentions but also because it was backed up by a pledge to provide a total of $1 billion in assistance for industrial development in the ASEAN countries.

Although Japan has long been the region's biggest donor, its decade-long economic slump is casting a shadow over its foreign aid policy.

Tokyo decided to cut its official development assistance by 10 percent in fiscal 2002, starting April 1, to 910.6 billion yen.

''It is no good to reduce foreign aid just because we are in dire straits,'' a senior Japanese diplomat said. ''Nobody would take a tightfisted Japan seriously.''

A big question mark hanging over Koizumi's initiative is on Japan's willingness to launch an FTA with ASEAN. Given the political sensitivity surrounding the country's tightly protected agricultural sector, it is almost impossible to imagine he will move to open the farming market to ASEAN nations eager to export their agricultural products to Japan.

''Signing an FTA with ASEAN would be difficult in the foreseeable future,'' a Japanese trade official admitted. ''It might be possible to create bilateral FTAs with some ASEAN countries though.''

Japan and Singapore signed an agreement to launch an FTA on Sunday. But the pact allows Tokyo to effectively maintain tariffs on agricultural imports, which make up only 4 percent of the value of imports from Singapore.

Koizumi's plan to eventually include China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand in the proposed Japan-ASEAN partnership is another reason for the doubts about his commitment to Southeast Asia. He had once expressed hope to even include the U.S.

This appeared to some observers to be no more than an endorsement of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that pursues a loose form of cooperation under the banner of ''open regionalism.''

There seems to be little difference between Koizumi's call for a ''community'' in the Asia-Pacific region and APEC leaders' landmark agreement in 1993 to ''envision a community of Asia-Pacific economies.''

For all his achievements in opening up new vistas for Japan-ASEAN ties, Fukuda was more known for his ''omni-directional diplomacy'' -- a vague foreign policy stance attaching importance to all other countries -- than his Southeast Asia orientation while in office.

It may be going too far to say Koizumi is trying to follow in the footsteps of his mentor and intentionally leave his diplomatic goals in the dark.

But it will continue to be difficult for Koizumi to deflect growing criticism that he is more concerned about strengthening relations with the U.S. than with boosting ties with ASEAN unless he puts forth a detailed explanation about what his ASEAN policy is all about.-- Oana-Kyodo

By Naoko Aoki

SINGAPORE, Jan 14 (Oana-Kyodo) -- Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today called for closer economic and security ties between Japan and Southeast Asian nations that would ultimately evolve into a new community linking other parts of East Asia.

In a policy speech delivered in Singapore, the premier said relations between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should be boosted to new heights so they can serve as a pivot of regional cooperation.

''In the simplest terms, this is what I would like to see Japan and ASEAN accomplish -- more prosperity, more peace, more understanding, more trust,'' Koizumi said in the speech titled ''Japan and ASEAN in East Asia.''

''In the 21st century, as sincere and open partners, Japan and ASEAN should strengthen their cooperation under the basic concept of ''acting together -- advancing together.''

As the centerpiece of the plan, Koizumi proposed establishing an ''Initiative for Japan-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Partnership'' -- a concept to expand relations from the traditional areas of trade and investment to such sectors as science and technology, human resource development and tourism.

Koizumi said a free trade agreement between Japan and Singapore signed between the two countries on Sunday -- the first such deal to be concluded by Japan -- could be a model for that cooperation.

But the premier stopped short of making a clear-cut call for such deals with other countries in the region, saying only that he wants to see ''concrete proposals'' made at a meeting of leaders of Japan and ASEAN in the future.

Koizumi has been selling the new economic framework and broader policy on East Asia during his weeklong five-nation tour, which also took him to the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

In the speech -- based on one in 1977 by then Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda on Japan's Southeast Asian policy -- Koizumi also pledged to pursue his structural reform programs to achieve a genuine recovery in Japan's long-struggling economy, and to support ASEAN's efforts for reform.

''I know that no great reform is accomplished without pain and resistance. I also know that the countries of ASEAN are awaiting Japan's structural reform and the subsequent return of a dynamic Japanese economy,'' he said.

On the security front, Koizumi noted the change in the ways of thinking since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, adding that Japan plans to play a more active role to ensure regional stability.

''I propose that Japan and ASEAN security cooperation, including transnational issues such as terrorism, be drastically intensified,'' Koizumi said. ''Now, more than ever, we realize that one's own security is at stake when a neighbor's wall is ablaze.''

Koizumi also proposed seeking closer links between Japan and ASEAN by designating 2003 as the Year of Japan-ASEAN Exchange and convening a meeting to discuss models of development for East Asia.

But the premier noted that the process of expanding cooperation from the Japan-ASEAN framework to a wider area would be far from easy.

''Certainly, such an objective cannot be achieved overnight,'' Koizumi said. ''The first step is to make the best use of the framework of ASEAN plus three (Japan, China and South Korea),'' he said.

ASEAN and the three Northeast Asian partners have been holding joint meetings annually since 1997.

''Through accumulation of this concrete cooperation, I expect that the countries of ASEAN, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand will be the core members of such a community,'' he said.

Koizumi added that the proposed ''community'' should also forge a partnership with other regions of the world, particularly the U.S., South Asian countries and Europe.

''The community I am proposing should be by no means an exclusive entity. Indeed, practical cooperation in the region would be founded on close partnership with those outside the region,'' the premier said.

''Through such efforts, the community I have described can take meaningful actions for regional cooperation. I believe that this in turn will benefit global stability and prosperity,'' he said.-- Oana-Kyodo