Tokyo Balks at U.S. Curbs on High-Tech Gear for Iran

America’s drive to persuade its allies to sharply curb shipments of high-tech equipment to Iran has hit a major roadblock in Tokyo, which is expressing some reluctance to back Washington’s latest Middle Eastern initiative.

Where America sees in Iran an emerging regional and global threat in an unstable part of the world, Japan sees an old friendship still worthy of cultivating.

“We cannot agree 100% with the United States because our ties (with Iran) go a long way back and are different from Iran-U.S. relations,” Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe said at a press conference Friday.

Iran’s massive effort to rebuild its economy provides a potentially lucrative market for a Japanese industrial sector starving for orders. And Iran’s oil is critical for Japan’s energy-hungry industry.

Although the State Department says it is interested primarily in restricting products that could contribute to Iran’s military might, Japanese officials privately complain that America wants to impose export restrictions on Iran so broad that they could even cover such harmless products as office equipment and consumer electronics.

What Tokyo does about Tehran may be an indicator of Japan’s halting progress toward becoming an independent player in global diplomacy. While Tokyo traditionally has deferred to Washington on such matters, it has expressed growing discontent with American leadership--and in the case of its recent decision to renew aid to Vietnam has shown its willingness to chart its own course.

One Japanese newspaper reported that Japan was hesitant to openly defy America this time because such a move could create a rift with the United States that could escalate under President-elect Bill Clinton. Clinton is regarded here as a strong proponent of an economic embargo against Iran.

Japan’s Iran policy may also provide a hint as to whether Japan’s foreign policy will prove to be one based on broader humanitarian principles or one that remains closely tied to its own economic interests.

Earlier this fall, when Japan proudly unveiled new guidelines for giving foreign aid, an important consideration was to be whether the recipient was pursuing a policy of military expansion. That consideration has been largely ignored in Japan’s policy of maintaining aid to China, despite Beijing’s human rights violations and military expansion efforts.

Last week, Japan confirmed that it would not use the aid weapon where it might hurt Japanese industry when it signaled that it would soon begin renewing foreign aid to oil-rich Iran after a 17-year hiatus. Japan plans to lend Iran roughly $300 million to help finance a new hydroelectric plant. The government is also talking of restoring trade insurance to companies dealing with Iran. Government officials argue that it is important to promote economic cooperation with Iran because of its Mideast political influence.

Watanabe said Friday that Japan would not reconsider the decision to provide aid to Iran, despite American efforts to isolate Tehran.

“Economic cooperation (with Iran) and the security question are not directly related,” said Toshio Kunikato, director of economic security at the Foreign Ministry.

Japan’s policy toward Iran is one of the few cases in which Tokyo, historically, has stood apart from the West. While most Western nations sided with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War, Japan remained independent and served on a number of occasions as an intermediary to try to stop the war.

Japan also did not join Western allies in recalling its ambassador to Tehran to protest the Iranian government’s death threat against British author Salman Rushdie. When the Japanese translator of Rushdie’s controversial novel, “The Satanic Verses,” was found murdered on his university campus, the matter drew little official attention.

But on another front, Japan’s slow progress toward a more prominent global role for itself was underscored recently by Tokyo’s response to an international call for help for famine-stricken Somalia.

When the Japanese were asked by Western nations at an Oct. 12 Geneva meeting if Japan could supply transport planes to help ship food to Somalia, Japan hesitated, complaining that such a move would be illegal under its laws.

Japan passed a landmark bill last spring that allows it to send its Self-Defense Forces overseas as peacekeepers. But Foreign Ministry spokesman Masamichi Hanabusa said the new bill does not allow Japan involvement in areas “where not all parties concerned have (agreed) to accept the emergency assistance,” as is the case in Somalia, where internecine strife has blocked aid to the starving.

Now, one month later, Hanabusa says the government is still studying its options and has yet to make a final decision. But analysts say there are other more compelling reasons besides legal questions blocking a Japanese role in Somalia; the Japanese are said to lack interest in African affairs and to find Somalia to be too far away and too dangerous a place.

But the Japanese are considering an alternative--paying for an American charter plane and crew to do the dangerous delivery work.