Von Habsburg hopes Japan will be 'peaceful superpower'

Japan Policy & Politics, Oct 25, 1999

TOKYO, Oct. 18 Kyodo A son of the last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and stalwart of European politics during the continent's unification process says Asia expects Japan to serve as a force for integration.

Otto von Habsburg, 86, said Japan should play a central role as a "peaceful superpower" of the future.

"That is a great task of Japan," said von Habsburg, who arrived in Japan last Tuesday to visit friends.

"You will say you cannot (be a superpower in Asia) because of what happened in South Korea 50 or 100 years ago," he said in a recent interview with Kyodo News. "But we have had a lot (of such things) in Europe and reconciliation has taken place." Von Habsburg, the last crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which collapsed in 1918, gave up in 1961 his rights to the throne and to property that the Habsburgs had kept since the early 1400s.

He served as president of the Pan-European Union in 1973 and helped organize the "Pan-European Picnic" movement in Shopron, Hungary, in August 1989.

In the event many East Germans flooded into West Germany after having crossed through Austria, helping to trigger the fall of the Berlin Wall in November that year.

"Two-thirds of the problems (have been) resolved since then," von Habsburg, formerly a longtime member of the European Parliament, said. "There will be political consequences which will have to take some time," he added.

Von Habsburg joined the parliament in 1979 and finished his 20-year career in June.

He is skeptical about a close friendship between Europe and Russia, saying there is no basis for trust or political stability.

"Russians must decide whether they are Europeans" or belong to Asia, he said. He quoted Russian President Boris Yeltsin as saying several years ago, "I don't know whether I am a European or an Asian." Von Habsburg would support Russian membership in European organizations only after the country finishes "decolonization," he said.

He will travel through Japan before leaving for home Friday, visiting Nagoya, Ise Shrine in Mie Prefecture, Kyoto, Nagasaki and other cities.

"Changing transportation is revolutionary to our lives," he said, remembering when the United States was eight days from Europe.

Asked when he expects a completion of unification of Europe, where many problems exist over unity in foreign affairs and security, he said he cannot set a date because it keeps growing and changing.

The decades that have passed since he began to work for such unification represent "a very short time" historically, he said.

"Sometimes bureaucrats or technocrats want to build a house starting by the roof, but we should start it from the ground," he said.