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The newsletter of United
Nations University and its international network of research and training centres/programmes |
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Issue 29: January-February 2004 | |||||||
COMMENT Is Japan to mainland Asia The European landmass lies to the south and east of Britain, the Asian landmass to the north and west of Japan. A newspaper headline in Britain once famously declared: "Fog over the channel, continent isolated." Japan may lack such endearing chauvinism, but is far more homogeneous and closed as a society than Britain, especially modern Britain. Japan is geographically more distant from the Asian mainland, yet metaphorically closer to Asia than Britain is to Europe. After World War II, Britain lost an empire but gained a role. Before that war, Japan gained an empire but lost its international role in the aftermath of a bitter and complete defeat. The British empire, on which the sun never set, was in other parts of the world, never in Europe. The Japanese empire, on which the sun set very quickly indeed, was only in Asia. The British attitude of superiority toward all things continental is therefore based on factors other than having been the colonial master. Japan's relations with much of Asia is still heavily colored on both sides by the history of colonial enterprise and the brutal policies that often accompanied it.
The politics of identity is complex and volatile, as we discovered in
the Balkans and East Timor during the last decade. So much of modern
Japan has its origins in things borrowed from Asia over many centuries,
not just China as is most obvious, but also India (for example, the
influence of Buddhism). Yet Japan's drive to modernization and By identity we mean something with which one's heart is at ease and something for which one is ready to sacrifice a lot. In determining one country's foreign policy direction, identity often matters.
In an 18-country (nine Asian, nine European) international survey in
2000, conducted by University of Tokyo professor Takashi Inoguchi,
two-thirds of respondents here identified themselves as Japanese when
asked about their nationality, compared to 88 percent South Koreans. But
only 26 percent described themselves as Asian when asked about the
larger grouping to which they belonged, compared to 80 percent South
Koreans. Interestingly, the Chinese identified themselves as
"Asian" and
"Chinese" in equal measure as their larger grouping of choice,
some 30 The reason for this is simple. The Asian identity of Japanese has traditionally been weak. Japan is very much like Britain vis-a-vis their respective continents. Keeping the continent/mainland at arm's length is the best phrase to characterize their relationships with the continent. To both, the continent is a potentially troublesome place. It is important to stay engaged with them for economic, political, cultural and security reasons. At times it is also necessary to discourage them from attempting awful things.
But in the end they are, well, continentals. By God's grace, in happy
contrast, the English and Japanese are maritime and global trading
nations. Both were previously firmly mercantilist and are now strongly
free traders. As is the case with Britain, however, Japan cannot help but be influenced by developments on the continent. Both London and Tokyo try to balance a close and vital security alliance with Washington against the cross-currents of political moods in their respective continents. The London-Washington "axis of virtue" has to be manifested concretely within the larger context of the state of relations in the London-Paris-Berlin triangle. The Tokyo-Washington axis has to evolve and be interpreted in the context of the state of play between Tokyo-Seoul-Beijing.
The British and Japanese governments were equally at odds with the
dominant antiwar sentiment in their own countries in firmly supporting
the U.S. policy against former President Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and
supporting the war even outside the United Nations framework. Britain
was only one of two allies to send troops to fight alongside the
Americans in Iraq (the other being Australia). Japan sent no troops
during the war itself, but the government has paved the way by
appropriate legislation to send Japanese Self-Defense Forces to Iraq for
the postwar stabilization and peacekeeping phase. In both cases,
strategic calculations about the importance of the bilateral alliance
with the U.S. -- and about the practicality of being able to influence
U.S. decisions from inside instead of criticizing it ineffectually from
the outside -- may have been at least as important as convictions about
the need to go to war against Hussein in order to disarm him or liberate
his people. The differences between Japan and Britain may be more relevant in determining the answer to this question. While Britain is one of Europe's big economies, the largest is Germany. By contrast, Japan is the overwhelmingly dominant economy of Asia. Tokyo differs sharply from London's relations with Europeans also in its role as the chief aid donor to so many Asian countries. London was a latecomer to European economic integration. Economic integration in Asia, either across the continent or even just restricted to East Asia, would not be feasible without Japan being at the center of it from the beginning. By the same token, the economic disparity between Japan and most other Asian countries makes even bilateral free-trade agreements vastly more complicated. Such agreements are useful tools for efficiency and productivity gains, but chiefly through rationalization of complementary economies at similar levels of development, industrialization and sophistication. And the knowledge that Japan is so much bigger and more advanced than its neighbors has also shaped the attitude of Japanese executives and officials in their dealings with fellow Asians. If some anecdotes are to be believed, the British, too, may have similar attitudes toward continentals, though with a lesser basis in observable and objective facts. Ramesh Thakur is UNU Senior Vice Rector and director of the Peace and Governance Programme. Takashi Inoguchi is a professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo and a former Senior Vice Rector of UNU This commentary first appeared in the November 9 edition of the The Japan Times. These are their personal views. |
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