Japan´s Role in the Context of the Emerging Asia‑Pacific World

Abstract

Japan used to be regarded as an inscrutable country with its diffident leaders acting in a complex system. An extreme view is that the country is no more than an animal lacking in diplomacy that is backed by military strength including nuclear weapons; this view is associated with the so-called Alice in Wonderland phobia. Another view portrays Japan as a would-be superpower which has become the world's biggest donor country, together with its highly competitive technology and the prospect of achieving third rank status in world defence expenditures. Whichever is the case, Japan's intentions and real capability need to be assessed objectively in order to understand its growing role in the international society. In recent years, the possibility of the advent of the is becoming clear in the shift of the centre of gravity of the world economy to this region. If Japan and the United States, facing each other across the Pacific Ocean, can complement each other, the former as the largest creditor nation and the latter as a major debtor, the Pacific Age may indeed materialize in due course. The relationship could be similar to that which existed between Britain and America across the Atlantic for more than a century. The Asia-Pacific region, including Southeast Asia, is heterogenous in its stages of economic development and in the forms of its cultures and polities. Notwithstanding this diversity, with the advent of the newly industrializing countries (NICs), the region is one of great economic vitality today and boasts of the world's most rapid growth performance. As part of this dynamism, a growing Japanese role in the world community, and as an extension of it, a strengthened role in the Asia-Pacific region, has attracted much attention and publicity, as exemplified by Japan's hyperbolic role at the 1988 Toronto summit. Concurrently, the past few years have witnessed significant developments in other parts of the world. One is the European Community's (EC's) decision to elevate itself as a truly common market by 1992. The other is the agreement reached in October 1987 between the United States and Canada to forge a free trade area. Given the fact that the United States can no longer afford to play the role of the world's policeman nor continue to be a booming market for Asian exports, Washington has encouraged Japan to help out in two ways: firstly, by sharing more of American defence costs in the region and secondly, by increasing its spending on foreign aid. Largely responding to these moves, the Japanese Government has initiated several policies, to be discussed shortly, both on a global and regional basis. From the region's perspective, the so-called NICs bashing and the withdrawal of American trade privileges have heightened the Asia-Pacific countries' expectation of a