Even if this does pass, it will be quickly forgotten. Japan should have learned by now that these things are not really about getting apologies, they’re about embarrassing Japan. There is nothing Japan can do that will end it (although it would help a lot if the PM would keep his borderline denials and thinly-veiled ultranationalism at home.)

But, first: I don’t think this resolution has a chance of passing. A lot of reps will think hard about voting ‘yay’ on this one. A lot of folks will be absent from the chamber that day or abstain from voting. They will be lobbied hard. I’m sure Bob Mitchel will come in with dinners, speeches, the whole nine yards.

Second: Even if it does pass, it’s obviously non-binding. Japan will just be shocked by the lack of power and influence it now possesses in the Democratic House. No surprises there.

Once again: I can’t believe they didn’t have a contingency plan, or way to divert media attention. Anything would be good. Have Madonna come over and adopt a baby. Maybe one from the new baby drop in Fukuoka. What? What resolution?

It might be a just symbolic victory for Mike Honda for his American constituents, but I think it will be symbolic for many Japanese when considering the US-Japan relations.

Anyway, I think Japanese government should use more soft-power in the future.

I posed the question because I think that’s the standard political response: Japan is cornered and the passage of this bill would be a checkmate on Japan, squeezed between the US and China/Korea.

Still, I think one Japanese member of the diet could propose such a measure. After all, Mike Honda is just one man in the House of Representatives (I know that similar bills have been introduced and shot down before, but they’re done and gone).

If Japan went tit-for-tat, I wonder if that might get the Americans (ahem, the Democrats) to reign in their own. Perhaps not. I think it becomes problematic when our countries remain fixated at slinging political mud at each other rather than working toward a future we should be excellent in together.

That said, the comfort women issue will need to be resolved somehow, someday. Playing the ‘wait till they die’ game is politically bankrupt. It may even backfire in a wave of resentment. I do find it surprising that given the Democratic Party’s ascension to control in the Congress that the LDP did not have a contingency plan to deal with this inevitability.

So, that post would make me raise the question: When will the Japanese government put forth a motion asking the US Government to recognize and apologize for the 特殊慰安施設協会?