TOKYO – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday urged Japan to remain active on the world stage as it grappled with a nuclear crisis in the wake of a deadly earthquake and tsunami and she pledged support for Washington’s key ally in East Asia.
Her comments came as the operator of the nuclear plant crippled in the March 11 disaster said it hoped to achieve a cold shutdown — effectively making the reactors safe and stable — within six to nine months.
“Economically, diplomatically and in so many other ways, Japan is indispensable to global problem-solving,” Clinton told a news conference after talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto. “And the U.S.-Japan alliance is as indispensable as ever to global security and progress.”
Clinton also said Japan and the United States had agreed to create a “public-private partnership for reconstruction” under the guidance of Japan’s government, and that U.S. firms and organisations would begin discussing how they can support Japan as it comes through the crisis.
Soon after she spoke the operator of the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) , gave a briefing outlining its plan to bring the plant to cold shutdown and end the immediate nuclear crisis.
Clinton arrived in Japan, which is still reeling from the triple disaster nearly five weeks later, on the final leg of a global trek that took her to Berlin for NATO talks on the Libya conflict and to Seoul to tackle the North Korean nuclear stand-off.
The quake and tsunami killed up to 28,000 people, and, with the resulting nuclear crisis, seriously rattled the world’s third-largest economy.
Damages from the quake and tsunami have been estimated at $300 billion, making it the world’s costliest natural disaster.
Washington has deployed thousands of troops plus military aircraft and navy ships to help with relief work in the devastated northeastern part of the island nation.
Clinton said there was no reason for Americans to stay away from Japan, other than the area around the nuclear plant.
“We have encouraged businesses and other Americans to go on with their normal lives and to travel to Japan for business and other reasons,” she said.
Clinton is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit in a gesture of solidarity with Japan, one of Washington’s closest Asian allies, since it was engulfed in its worst crisis since World War Two.
Her 5-1/2-hour stop comes after a week in which the Japanese government put its nuclear calamity on a par with the world’s worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl, after new data showed that more radiation had leaked from its crippled Fukushima Daiichi power plant than first thought.
Kan has insisted the nuclear situation is slowly stabilising and the country must now focus on recovery from the 9.0-magnitude quake and the tsunami it unleashed.
“I believe … this difficult period will provide us with a precious window of opportunity to secure the ‘Rebirth of Japan’,” Kan wrote in an editorial in the online version of Sunday’s International Herald Tribune newspaper.
He said Japan would remain internationally engaged while it recovers from the disasters.
“I believe that the best way for Japan to reciprocate … the cordial friendship extended to us is to continue our contribution to the development of the international community,” he wrote.
GLOBAL ECONOMIC PILLAR
In the meantime, Washington is concerned about harm to the economic health of a key trading partner and a pillar of the global economy.
Japan’s economics minister warned last week that the damage was likely to be worse than first thought as power shortages would cut factory output and disrupt supply chains. The Bank of Japan governor said the economy was in a “severe state”, while central bankers were uncertain when efforts to rebuild the northeast would boost growth.
Japan’s nuclear disaster has also raised concern in the United States about President Barack Obama’s push for expanded nuclear energy to help wean Americans off their dependence on foreign oil.
Neighbouring China and South Korea have become increasingly alarmed over the risk of radiation spreading from Japan, and several countries have banned or restricted food imports.
Japanese voters last weekend vented their anger at the government’s handling of the nuclear and humanitarian crisis, with Kan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) losing nearly 70 seats in local elections.
A fragile political detente with opposition parties has already collapsed and on Sunday, one of Kan’s chief rivals in the DPJ, Ichiro Ozawa, hinted he would vote in favour of a no-confidence motion against Kan, according to the Mainichi newspaper.
Kan was already under pressure to step down before the March 11 disasters, although any no confidence motion would need the support of more than 70 MPs from his own party.
The North Korean nuclear stand-off was also expected to be on the agenda for Clinton’s talks in Tokyo, especially after she discussed the issue with South Korean leaders in Seoul.
Japan is party to the long-stalled six-nation talks aimed at getting Pyongyang to abandon nuclear weapons development.
