Foreign relations of Japan

Despite the burst of the Japanese asset price bubble in the early 1990s and the subsequent slow economic growth, Japan remains a major economic and cultural power. Japan has diplomatic relations with nearly all independent nations and has been an active member of the United Nations since 1956. Japanese foreign policy has aimed to promote peace and prosperity for the Japanese people, and arguably for humanity in general, by working closely with the West and supporting the United Nations.

In recent years, the Japanese public has shown a substantially greater awareness of security issues and increasing support for the Self Defense Forces. This is in part due to its success in disaster relief efforts at home and its participation in peacekeeping operations in Cambodia in the early 1990s as well as the greater assertiveness in the first Iraq War requested by the first Bush Administration out of Japan in line with its economic power. However, there are still significant internal political and psychological constraints on, as well as intense Chinese and Korean opposition to, strengthening Japan's defense/military capabilities.

While maintaining its primary relationship with the United States, Japan has diversified and expanded its ties with other nations. Good relations with its neighbors continue to be of vital interest. After Japan signed a peace and friendship treaty with the People's Republic of China in 1978, ties between the two countries developed rapidly. The Japanese extend significant economic assistance to the Chinese in various modernization projects. At the same time, Japan has maintained economic but not diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan), where a strong bilateral trade relationship thrives.

One major diplomatic and cultural initiative is the JET Program, originally presented by former Prime Minister Nakasone to Ronald Reagan as a "gift." Some analysts suggest the relatively quick adoption of this program was a response to foreign claims that Japan was too insular and that it needed to bring up a new generation of youth comfortable with the English language and with foreigners.

Relations by country and region

United States

Main article: Japan-United States relations

The United States is Japan's closest ally, and Japan relies on the U.S. for its national security to a high degree. As the world's two top economic powers (in 2005), both countries also rely on close economic ties for their wealth, despite ongoing and occasionally acriminious trade frictions.

Although its constitution and government policy preclude an offensive military role for Japan in international affairs, Japanese cooperation with the United States through the 1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty has been important to the peace and stability of East Asia. Currently, there are domestic discussions about possible reinterpretation of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. All postwar Japanese governments have relied on a close relationship with the United States as the foundation of their foreign policy and have depended on the mutual security treaty for strategic protection.

The relationship probably hit a post-war nadir around the early 1990s, when Japanese economic dominance was seen as a threat to American power. Japan was the primary financer of the First Iraq War, yet received major criticism in some US circles for its refusal to commit actual military support. Following the collapse of the so-called Bubble economy and the 90s boom in the US, the Japanese economy was perceived as less of a threat to US interests. Some observers still feel that Japan's willingness to deploy troops in support of current US operations in Iraq, as spear-headed by Koizumi and the conservative LDP party, reflects a vow not to be excluded from the group of countries the US considers friends. This decision may reflect an realpolitik understanding of the threat Japan faces from a rapidly modernizing China, which from its continued and indeed growing pattern of anti-Japanesedemonstrations reveals the belief that old historical scores remain unsettled.

The question of whether Japan will "balance" (ally against) or submit to a Great Power China remains one of the great unresolved foreign affairs questions of today.

North and South Korea

Main article: Japanese-Korean relations

Japanese ties with (Republic of Korea) South Korea have improved since an exchange of visits in the mid-1980s by their political leaders. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung had a very successful visit to Japan in October 1998. Japan has limited economic and commercial ties with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). Japanese normalization talks halted when North Korea refused to discuss a number of issues with Japan.

Japan strongly supports the U.S. in its efforts to encourage Pyongyang to abide by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Despite the August 31, 1998 North Korean missile test which overflew the Home Islands, Japan has maintained its support for the Korean Energy Development Organization (KEDO) and the Agreed Framework, which seek to freeze the North Korean nuclear program. The U.S., Japan, and South Korean closely coordinate and consult trilaterally on policy toward North Korea, at least on a government level.

China

Main article: Sino-Japanese relations

South-East Asia

Main articles: Philippine-Japanese relations, Japanese-Vietnamese relations

By 1990 Japan's interaction with the vast majority of Asia-Pacific countries, especially its burgeoning economic exchanges, was multifaceted and increasingly important to the recipient countries. The developing countries of ASEAN regarded Japan as critical to their development. Japan's aid to the ASEAN countries totaled US$1.9 billion in Japanese fiscal year (FY) 1988 versus about US$333 million for the United States during U.S. FY 1988. Japan was the number one foreign investor in the ASEAN countries, with cumulative investment as of March 1989 of about US$14.5 billion, more than twice that of the United States. Japan's share of total foreign investment in ASEAN countries in the same period ranged from 70 to 80 percent in Thailand to 20 percent in Indonesia.

In the early 1990s, the Japanese government was making a concerted effort to enhance its diplomatic stature, especially in Asia. Toshiki Kaifu's much publicized spring 1991 tour of five Southeast Asian nations—Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines—culminated in a May 3 major foreign policy address in Singapore, in which he called for a new partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and pledged that Japan would go beyond the purely economic sphere to seek an "appropriate role in the political sphere as a nation of peace." As evidence of this new role, Japan took an active part in promoting negotiations to resolve the Cambodian conflict.

In 1997, the ASEAN member nations and the People's Republic of China, South Korea and Japan agreed to hold yearly talks to further strengthen regional cooperation, the ASEAN Plus Three meetings.

South Asia

In South Asia, Japan's role is mainly that of an aid donor. Japan's aid to seven South Asian countries totaled US$1.1 billion in 1988 and 1989, dropping to just under US$900 million in 1990. Except for Pakistan, which received heavy inputs of aid from the United States, all other South Asian countries receive most of their aid from Japan. Four South Asian nations—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—are in the top ten list of Tokyo's aid recipients worldwide.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu signaled a broadening of Japan's interest in South Asia with his swing through the region in April 1990. In an address to the Indian parliament, Kaifu stressed the role of free markets and democracy in bringing about "a new international order," and he emphasized the need for a settlement of the Kashmir territorial dispute between India and Pakistan and for economic liberalization to attract foreign investment and promote dynamic growth. To India, which was very short of hard currency, Kaifu pledged a new concessional loan of ¥100 billion (about US$650 million) for the coming year.

Russia

Main article: Japanese-Russian relations

Japan's relations with Russia are hampered by the two sides' inability to resolve their territorial dispute over the four islands that make up the Northern Territories (Kuriles), which the U.S.S.R. seized towards the end of World War II. The stalemate has prevented conclusion of a peace treaty formally ending the war. The United States supports Japan on the Northern Territories issue and recognizes Japanese sovereignty over the islands. Despite the lack of progress in resolving the Northern Territories dispute, Japan and Russia have made some progress in developing other aspects of the relationship. Even without a peace treaty, most Japanese do not feel that relationship with Russia is troubled. That said, remembrance of the almost last-minute Soviet declaration of war on the defeated Japan in World War II and subsequent exploitation of former Japanese soldiers in harsh Siberian prison labor camps remains.

Western Europe

Main articles: Anglo-Japanese relations; Franco-Japanese relations; German-Japanese relations

Although cultural and noneconomic ties with Western Europe grew significantly during the 1980s, the economic nexus remained by far the most important element of Japanese-West European relations throughout the decade. Events in West European relations, as well as political, economic, or even military matters, were topics of concern to most Japanese commentators because of the immediate implications for Japan. The major issues centered on the effect of the coming West European economic unification on Japan's trade, investment, and other opportunities in Western Europe. Some West European leaders were anxious to restrict Japanese access to the newly integrated European Union (until November 1993, the European Community), but others appeared open to Japanese trade and investment. In partial response to the strengthening economic ties among nations in Western Europe and to the United States-Canada-Mexico North American Free Trade Agreement, Japan and other countries along the Asia-Pacific rim began moving in the late 1980s toward greater economic cooperation.

On July 18, 1991, after several months of difficult negotiations, Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu signed a joint statement with the Dutch prime minister and head of the European Community Council, Ruud Lubbers, and with the European Commission president, Jacques Delors, pledging closer Japanese-European Community consultations on foreign relations, scientific and technological cooperation, assistance to developing countries, and efforts to reduce trade conflicts. Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials hoped that this agreement would help to broaden Japanese-European Community political links and raise them above the narrow confines of trade disputes.

Other countries

Beyond its immediate neighbors, Japan has pursued a more active foreign policy in recent years, recognizing the responsibility that accompanies its economic strength. It has expanded ties with the Middle East, which provides most of its oil. Japan increasingly is active in Africa and Latin America and has extended significant support to development projects in both regions. And a Japanese-conceived peace plan became the foundation for nationwide elections in Cambodia in 1998.

Debates and frictions

Japan's has formally issued statements for its military occupations during and before World War II but it has done little in helping to improve her relationships with neighboring countries, especially the People's Republic of China, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea and South Korea. Despite the formal statements of regret from Prime Ministers Hosokawa Morihiro and Murayama Tomiichi, these countries still insist that Japan has yet to formally express remorse for its wrongdoings in the 20th century. In regards to the statements however, it is more of a debate about compensation and war reparations than over the symbolic nature of words and acknowledgments of wrongdoing and regret. Japan’s official stance is that all war related reparation claims have been resolved (except for North Korea). Unofficial visits to the controversial Yasukuni Jinja by past and present Prime Ministers belonging to the Liberal Democratic Party and the exclusion or generalisation some elements of Japan’s military history in a number school textbooks have also clouded the issue.

In 2004 the People’s Republic of China, North Korea, and South Korea also criticized Japan for sending its Ground Self Defence Forces to Iraq, which was seen as a return to militarism. The government of Japan insisted that it forces would only participate in reconstruction and humanitarian aid missions.

There is a widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in many Asian countries, particularly the People’s Republic of China, the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, and South Korea. However, division is not always the case. South Korea and Japan successfully dual-hosted the 2002 Football World Cup together bridging a physical and political gap between the two countries. The popularity of Bae Yon Joon, a South Korean actor, in Japan was also seen as a sign that the two cultures had moved closer together.

Disputed territories

Islands of Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan, and the Habomai group occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945, now administered by Russia, claimed by Japan; Tokdo administered by South Korea, claimed by Japan as Liancourt Rocks/Takeshima; Senkaku-shoto (Senkaku Islands) claimed by the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan.

See also:

• Anglo-Japanese relations
• Franco-Japanese relations
• Japanese-German relations
• Japanese-Russian relations
• Japanese-Vietnamese relations
• List of war apology statements issued by Japan
• Philippine-Japanese relations
• Sino-Japanese relations

Reference

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External Links

Various articles and discussion papers on Japan's foreign relations in the electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies