As democracies across the globe distance themselves from Cambodia's general election, widely slammed as a sham, Japan has conspicuously gone out of its way to recognize it. Its apparent motive: win back the heart of Prime Minister Hun Sen as the Cambodian leader cozies up to China.
In the lead-up to the Sunday poll, Tokyo has contributed aid worth about ¥800 million to the National Election Committee of Cambodia, which according to the Foreign Ministry has been used for the procurement of 11,000 ballot boxes and 40 pickup trucks.
But critics and experts say Japan's continued efforts to fund the election won't provide much of a counterweight to China's rising influence in Cambodia, and only risk making itself appear complicit in an electoral farce that in all likelihood will give Hun Sen — who has ruled the country for more than three decades — a renewed grip on power.