Every time a new Japanese prime minister is chosen, it is an opportunity for reflection, especially for people living in the region.

Such will be the occasion in the coming weeks. Like the country's previous leaders, the new Japanese prime minister will face pressure from two impulses - one emanating from the past and the other pulling towards the future.

Under the outgoing prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, Japan has pursued distinctive and controversial policies. Koizumi took bold steps towards bureaucratic and economic reform, which revived the economy and won his government accolades. He also tried to expand Japan's global role. Tokyo's unsuccessful campaign to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council was real eye-opener as it revealed both the country's strengths and weaknesses as well as the views of international community on Japan's soft powers.

In the process, Japan discovered to its disappointment that its relations with the other countries in the region were a kind of unrequited love. It was a moment of truth for Japan and its so-called friends.

Under its next leader, Japan must take the opportunity to readjust its foreign policy and try to overcome the misunderstandings and stereotyped thinking that seems to be rooted in the region. This will help ensure a proper balance between major regional powers. Strange as it may seem, even though Japan has forged excellent ties with individual members of Asean, its overall relations with the grouping are far from satisfactory. In comparison, China has enjoyed closer and more trustful relations with Asean.

This is ironic considering the huge amount of financial and other forms of assistance that Japan has directed towards Asean.

In the future, Japan will no longer be able to afford the kind of diplomatic mishaps that would put a damper on its regional initiatives or reputation. There should be little doubt over Japan's goodwill and sincerity. Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yasukuni Shrine have turned into a huge diplomatic albatross, damaging ties with Japan's former foes in Asia. Even though the controversial trips have caused less controversy in Southeast Asia, China and South Korea have continued to react ferociously to each visit. Indirectly, this affects Japan's ties with the region and vice versa. China and South Korea are both partners of the Asean-led cooperation scheme known as Asean-plus-three, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year, as well as the new East Asian Summit forum established last December in Kuala Lumpur.

After the end of World War II, Japan made very effort to improve its diplomatic ties the ways with the region - some countries were direct victims of Japan's military adventurism - with generous economic assistance. That was no longer the case with the emergence of China in the 1990's as a major power to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, Japan's ties with the region have not yet been transformed to cope with the rise of China.

For instance, comparisons of Japan's and China's preferences for dealing with Asean are commonplace these days. It is an open secret that the grouping has cleverly taken full advantage of whatever discrepancies have arisen between the two Asian powers. Japan has established 33 mechanisms in the past three decades to deal with Asean. During the past decade, China has set forth 48. A grand summit to celebrate the 10th anniversary of China's Asean ties is scheduled to take place in Nanning at the end of October.

It is interesting to note that when push comes to shove between Japan and China, most of the Asean countries would opt for China. Asean's lack of consensus on Japan's UN bid and stronger support for China's position were a case in point. This is a new sentiment that has really taken route in the Koizumi era. Such a zero-sum mind-set is very dangerous to the future of Southeast Asia and must be avoided at all costs. Japan's new leader must come to grips with this issue. After all, the Japan-China rivalry cannot go on forever, at the expense of broader community-building in East Asia and beyond.

Japan must be more sensitive in constructing its regional policy. It should be grounded in the socio-eco reality of Southeast Asia. Regular consultations rather than the existing ad-hoc approach will be a prerequisite for trust- and confidence-building between Japan and Asean. Tokyo's regional policy must be pro-active and go beyond the traditional approaches. It must involve new elements relating to the promotion of transparency, good governance and accountability - issues that Beijing is not capable of addressing at this juncture. Sad but true, Asia's richest democracy has not yet tried to play any tangible role in uplifting the region's level of governance and accountability.

The strong alliance between Japan and the United States is beneficial to the peace and stability in the region, as it has always been in the past six decades. But it is necessary for Japan's leadership to demonstrate that its regional policies are not an appendix of US strategies, but of its own design and based on regional-interests and longstanding experiences. This policy must engage the region and its well-being.

A failure by the new leadership to pursue such policies would further widen the gap between Asean and Japan. That will hurt everyone.

Kavi Chongkittavorn