Audrey Young: New Zealand just a blip on Tokyo radar

New Zealand is holding its second "partnership forum" with Japan in Tokyo today but it is less of a partnership event than similar ones held with Australia and the United States.

Today's forum is part of the salvage mission New Zealand is conducting with Japan.

Prime Minister John Key is speaking at today's event which has drawn about 90 businessmen and women.

With Australia, the partnership exists in reality as well as theory and the annual partnership forum is now aimed at getting greater integration of transtasman systems with a single economic market.

As well as business, it gets big buy-in from politicians on both sides of the Tasman and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd held a joint Cabinet meeting with Prime Minister John Key when this year's one was held in Sydney.

The forum with the United States helped give momentum to getting that anti-nuclear "rock in the road" that blocked bilateral relations off to the side.

Now the forum helps to get New Zealand on Washington's agenda.

The timing of the Tokyo forum was set before the snap election in September.

But the timing means that a country that has paid less and less attention to New Zealand over recent years is even more distracted than usual with the formation of the new Government.

New Zealand has been distracted as well, putting greater resources and political energy into relations with China and the free trade agreement.

Japan has much to be distracted by domestically and regionally.

As well as having to put substance to the welter of grand slogans that won the election, Japan is in the midst of a long-term power struggle between the US, with which it has a security pact, and China, which is growing in military and economic might.

The visit of President Barack Obama to Japan in just over two weeks may indicate whether the more anti-American rhetoric of the new PM, leftist Yukio Hatoyama, was just one of those things you say in Opposition or is translated to real policy, such as ending the refuelling of US frigates in the Indian Ocean.

Dr Hatoyama referred to the power struggle bluntly in a piece for the New York Times before the election.

"How should Japan maintain its political and economic independence and protect its national interest when caught between the United States, which is fighting to retain its position as the world's dominant power, and China, which is seeking ways to become dominant."

Japan and its neighbours, he said, "want to reduce the military threat posed by our neighbour China while ensuring that China's expanding economy develops in an orderly fashion".

He said they were major factors accelerating regional integration.

Dr Hatoyama is big on Japan playing the role of a "bridge" between East and West, developing and developed countries.

The question is whether his bridge will extend as far as New Zealand.