Pachinko parlours have also become Japanese foreign policy. To pressure North Korea to scale back its nuclear missile program, Japan is threatening to keep pachinko profits in Japan. The relationship between Japan and China is further complicated by Japan's dealings with Taiwan, Japan's third largest trading partner. Tensions between Taiwan and China increased over the summer as China accused Taiwan of trying to act like an independent country. Beijing has always asserted that Taiwan is a province of China and must be brought back into the fold.
Japan is also clamouring to be recognized as more than just an economic power.
It's unhappy that it has not been made a member of the United Nations Security Council. Unlike the United States, Japan continues to pay its UN dues. It's also the world's largest supplier of foreign aid. The United States' new ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, says he intends to campaign vigorously in support of Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the Security Council. Japan watchers say, while Tokyo is working hard at rehabilitating its image among its neighbours, it's going to take years to ease suspicions and erase memories generated by Tokyo's expansionist goals of the 1930s and 1940s.