Roles of U.S. 'Japan hands' in flux

The term "Japan hand," however, is not always welcome as a way to describe the role. Calling the phrase "uncomfortable," a Japanese diplomat said it sounds "as if the United States is manipulating Japan."

Yeah it's definitely not like Japan is a vassal state of the US or anything.

And, it's not as if Edwin Oldfather Reischauer was a "native of Japan"

Even though he was born in Tokyo in 1910 he was an American.

As for the rest of the above article - Roles of 'U.S. Japan Hands' in flux - it seems just as hazy as the claim about E.O. Reischauer's origins.

For a clearer and more complete view of the current geopolitical state of the world one can think in terms of the following -

The US and it's European & Asian allies would like to keep in place the world order that has existed since the end of WWII & the subsequent Korean War.

That means US first with Russia(USSR) and now China(PRC) vying for second/third as world powers. (No other countries come close to vying for the gold, silver & bronze positions.)

Contemporary Russia, under Putin, and China, under Shi, have decided to challenge the existing 'unipolar' world order. Wishing to have a tripolar one with the US pushed back out of Europe and E. Asia into the Americas (with influence over only the halves of the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans closest to US shores).

The last time such a challenge existed was when Germany, in Europe, and Japan, in Asia asserted themselves in the period 1930-1945.

Russia is the new Germany and China the new Japan as far as the US and it's preferred world order goes.

Of course, the contemporary great powers have to be more circumspect than those of the 1930s & early 1940s due to the great advances in weapons and other technologies since WWII.

However, basically, the Great Game still goes on - between those three great contemporary powers - bigger, better and more all-encompassing than ever before.

Other countries only play supporting bit parts or sit on the sidelines.

Yeah it's definitely not like Japan is a vassal state of the US or anything.

Certain people are loathe to see such sentiments expressed on this site, even if the relevant facts bear this out...even Japanese diplomats whose job is to cultivate good relations are not keen on the commonly used term "Japan hand" quoted in the article.