Japan's foreign minister stirs up diplomatic storm

The outspoken new foreign minister of Japan has stirred up trouble with the United States and other key allies after upsetting diplomatic underlings in her first six weeks in office.

Japan was once described as an economic giant trapped in the body of a diplomatic pygmy and, until Makiko Tanaka came on the scene, this was a situation that many in Tokyo were perfectly happy with.

Caught between China and America, between a democratic present and a militarist past, governments in Tokyo have perfected the art of keeping their heads down. In international summits and off-the-cuff remarks, Japanese foreign ministers have been remarkable only for their blandness, applauding good things, deploring bad things and doing their best not to upset anyone.

That was until the arrival of the remarkable Mrs Tanaka. Since her appointment by Japan's reformist premier, Junichiro Koizumi, she has been everything that Japanese diplomats are not: rude, confrontational, opinionated and cynical. And for the time being at least, she is getting away with it.

The story began at the end of April, when Mr Koizumi surprised everyone by being elected the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and therefore Japan's Prime Minister. Among his closest allies was Mrs Tanaka, 57, the daughter of Japan's best-loved prime minister, the late Kakuei Tanaka.

She was already noted for her bluntness and astringent wit, reflected by her being voted the most popular politician in Japan. Polls showed that if Japan was to be led by a president then Mrs Tanaka would be elected.

Within a few days of her appointment, Mrs Tanaka was doing the unthinkable by criticising the senior diplomats who work for her. Mrs Tanaka gave press conferences in which she accused senior diplomats of attempting to "intimidate" her; several who stood up to her were reported to have been banned from her presence.

Mrs Tanaka soon appeared to affect Japan's diplomacy. She is said to have suddenly pulled out of a meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, and to have cancelled telephone calls with her British and American counterparts, Robin Cook and Colin Powell respectively. The stories, all sourced anonymously, have appeared in conservative newspapers.

The crowning controversy came last week after a meeting with the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer in which the American plan to launch a space missile defence system was discussed. According to Ryutaro Hashimoto, the former prime minister who lost to Mr Koizumi, Mrs Tanaka criticised the plan and got personal about President George Bush.

Mrs Tanaka denied any such criticism. "I did not say these things, [but] I have been repeatedly bashed and as a result I cannot do my real job," she said. "In that case, all that will be possible is to read prepared statements. The result will be faceless Japanese diplomacy." Which is what many Japanese diplomats may prefer.