Even in Japan, Scandal Catches Up With Clinton

Hopes that President Clinton’s trip to Asia would provide an escape from the seamy topic of his impeachment hearings dissolved Thursday when a Japanese woman asked him one of the toughest questions he has faced yet--at least publicly--about his affair with Monica S. Lewinsky.

Prefacing her question by saying she would not forgive her husband for such behavior, a smiling Osaka homemaker asked Clinton how he had apologized to his wife and daughter and whether they had forgiven him.

“I did it in a direct and straightforward manner, and I believe they did,” a visibly uncomfortable Clinton replied during a nationally televised town-hall-style session hours after his arrival here. “But that’s really a question you could ask them better than me.”

Then a flash of nervous laughter filled the hall, and the clearly alarmed moderator abruptly asked for a change in the subject.

Although the Asia trip was planned before the House Judiciary Committee scheduled its impeachment hearing for Thursday, White House officials earlier in the day had expressed satisfaction that a foreign trip would provide a guarantee of television footage of the president looking presidential.

On Thursday, the images included the president meeting Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the stately Imperial Palace, attending a performance of Noh, an ancient Japanese theater form, and toasting Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi at an ornate banquet.

The Lewinsky surprise notwithstanding, Clinton won the admiration of the town-hall audience for avoiding the critical tone his administration has taken in recent years about Japan’s lackluster effort at reforming its economy.

In contentious trade talks in past years, the United States has been seen by many Japanese as a bully pushing reform. On Thursday, Clinton sounded like a cheerleader.

He simultaneously flattered the Japanese for the things they have done well--their high savings rate, industrial prowess and strong educational system--while gently prodding them to do the things the U.S. has been urging.

Participants said Clinton’s words offered some encouragement at a time when pessimism seems pervasive among Japanese, who every day see headlines about the anemic economy, growing unemployment and high bankruptcy rates.

“He’s very persuasive and logical. As I was listening, he made me feel the future was bright,” said Sachiko Mizutani, 57.

Clinton struck a tougher tone this morning, stressing that he is “quite worried” that unfair Japanese trade practices will result in a “round of retaliatory protectionism” in the United States.

He was particularly critical of Japan for flooding the American market with hot-rolled steel, with exports to the United States up 500% this year.

The president--who has held town hall sessions like the one Thursday on other foreign trips--planned the forum to try to engender support among the Japanese public for the tough economic reforms he considers necessary for an economic recovery across Asia.

Counting on the Japanese people’s famous reserve, the president’s handlers had not predicted a Lewinsky question at the event, the centerpiece of the first day of the president’s five-day trip to Japan, South Korea and the U.S. territory of Guam.

But the Lewinsky question was one of several stinging questions among mostly softballs from an audience of about 90 people in the Tokyo studio and an additional 30 people connected by video link from Osaka, Japan’s second-biggest city.

He was pressed by a family farmer about why he supports opening the Japanese market for U.S. rice exports that threaten the farmer’s way of living. Another participant pointedly asked why Clinton had failed to sign the international treaty to ban land mines.

The president was also pressed to explain his decision to approve and then call off a missile attack on Iraq last weekend.

Unless everyone had been warned and the targeted areas evacuated, “large numbers of people would be killed” in a comprehensive bombing raid on Iraq, Clinton said. “And I believe the United States has a special responsibility, because of the unique position of our military might at this moment in history, to be very careful in that.”

The Japanese participants, who are used to starched, severe politicians, were delighted by the loquacious, informal Clinton.

Yuka Horada, a university student who asked the president about Iraq, said after the show: “The great thing about him is that he talked to us face to face, like he was talking to me, not just to people in general.”

* CHASING A CHIMERA: Each time President Clinton visits Japan, he arrives with a different image of it. A10