Japan's long wait to address U.S. Congress

WASHINGTON —

Washington honors America’s closest friends by inviting their leaders to address a joint meeting of Congress. But until last Thursday, when House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner invited Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, no Japanese leaders had been invited. That’s striking considering the tight U.S.-Japan alliance in the 70 years since World War II ended. British, South Korean and German leaders have been invited multiple times. So have two Liberian presidents and a Latvian one - more than 100 invitations overall since the war.

So why not Japan? The answers have to do with underlying friction that has been a part of U.S.-Japanese relations and, more recently, frequent changes of Japanese leaders.

IN HIS GRANDFATHER’S FOOTSTEPS

The modern practice of a foreign leader speaking to both houses of Congress began with Winston Churchill in December 1941, just after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. After the war, Japanese leaders were not entirely shunned. Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, in 1957 addressed Congress, but it was to just one chamber, which was still common for visiting foreign leaders until the 1960s. Kishi had been detained as a war crimes suspect but was never indicted for his role as a wartime cabinet minister.

However, he became a strong advocate of closer relations with Washington, like his grandson, pushing through a 1960 security treaty that shaped the alliance as it stands today, committing the U.S. to assist Japan if it comes under attack. Kishi’s successor, Hayato Ikeda, made a very short address to the House in 1961. No Japanese premier has since.

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