http://www.iht.com/IHT/TODAY/THU/FPAGE/nippon.2.html
Paris, Thursday, July 20, 2000 Clinton Delays Trip to Okinawa; Japanese Miffed Last-Ditch Effort in Mideast Summit
By Doug Struck Washington Post Service
TOKYO - President Bill Clinton's decision Wednesday to spend an extra day with the Middle East peace negotiations at Camp David sent shivers down the spine of Japan, which is investing $872 million and huge political hopes on the conference of world leaders convening this weekend in Okinawa. Mr. Clinton's decision to skip Tokyo and arrive in Okinawa for the economic summit meeting a day later than planned, a decision coming on the heels of Madeleine Albright's absence from the foreign ministers' conference in Japan last week, invokes lingering fears in Japan of being ''bypassed'' by America.
[The White House spokesman, Joe Lockhart, said Mr. Clinton still intended to fly to Japan before dawn Thursday to attend the Group of Eight summit talks, Reuters reported from Thurmont, Maryland, near the Camp David presidential retreat. ''We'll leave for Japan sometime after midnight tonight,'' he said.]
Tokyo's preoccupation with staging a smooth meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven economic powers plus Russia, observers here said, can be seen as a reflection of its insecurity on the world stage and its unease about what it sees as Washington's sometimes fickle loyalty.
''Even before the summit has begun, it feels like we are being swept aside'' by the United States, Fuji Television complained. TV Asahi added, ''It is clear'' where Mr. Clinton's priority lies, noting that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori ''has been studying hard for the summit. He is disheartened at the start.''
Japan has placed extraordinary importance on the summit meeting, an annual and now somewhat routine affair that has been going on for 25 years. The former prime minister, Keizo Obuchi, who died in May, made the G-8 meeting a chief political goal.
''This summit has to be a resounding success,'' Mr. Obuchi said in January. ''I believe the major role Japan is required to play in the international community rests in its entirety on the success of the summit.''
His successor, Mr. Mori, is counting on the talks to revive his dismal popularity ratings. In the June elections, his top campaign vow was an appeal to voters to let him carry out Mr. Obuchi's dream of a successful summit meeting.
Japan has tried to shape the image of the meeting, casting it first as a stage for Asian concerns - to be presented by Japan, the only Asian member of the G-8 - and then as the doorway to the Information Technology Age.
The spin has not caught on. It was undercut when Mr. Mori acknowledged that he had only recently sent his first electronic mail.
''We're not sure the Japanese leader really understands the IT revolution, since we know he touched a mouse for the first time in the last few weeks,'' said Susumi Yanase, a member of Parliament from the opposition Democratic Party.
Like most recent G-8 summit meetings, the set agenda - such issues as cybercrime and globalization and world health that already have been worked out by staff - is likely to be overshadowed by the immediate concerns of the day.
The Middle East will be one. North Korea is another; President Vladimir Putin of Russia was in Pyongyang Wednesday in what some saw as a bid to reassert Moscow's influence there. And there will be much attention on how Mr. Clinton, Mr. Putin, and the other G-8 leaders handle their disagreement over the National Missile Defense being considered by Washington. Beijing and Moscow have warned that it could upset existing curbs on missile proliferation.
Locally, groups in Okinawa hope to hijack attention to spotlight the large U.S. military presence on the island. Organizers opposed to the American bases hope to rally 25,000 people Thursday to form a human chain around Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. They will continue protests throughout the weekend. ''This will be the focal point of the world's mass media,'' said Takashi Kishimoto, an organizer. ''We want them to know the reality of bases in Okinawa.''
When Mr. Obuchi chose Okinawa as the meeting site, instead of Tokyo where it has been held three times previously, he risked controversy over the bases, home to 26,000 U.S. troops. But the issue seemed subdued until the recent arrest of a Marine on allegations that he had fondled a 14-year-old girl.
Japan has sent more than 20,000 police officers to join the 1,500 already in Okinawa. The Coast Guard will patrol the coast with a small fleet of 140 craft, ranging from rubber dinghies outfitted with plastic shields on their bottoms to zip over the shallow coral reefs, to eight destroyers that will cruise offshore.