Japan in the world today

East Garden of the Imperial Palace

Today was our "business" day, which we started with a visit to the U.S. Embassy.  We have always found that our foreign service officers in the U.S. embassies and consulates around the world are great sources of information about the countries we visit.  The 2 officials we met with today were no exception and provided us with an excellent briefing on Japan's economy, politics and role in the world.

This year, Japan celebrates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, which is a big deal to them.  In that 70 years, they have gone from being our formidable enemy to one of our closest allies, a "remarkable transformation".  Japan has become a global partner, working closely with the U.S. around the world.

They have made a big humanitarian contribution in the Middle East in the fight against IS and paid a big price when IS murdered 2 Japanese citizens, citing Japan's donation of $200 million in humanitarian aid to the region.  Japan puts a huge premium on protecting their citizens abroad and has made this an important facet of their foreign policy.  Prime Minister Abe sees IS as a threat not only to Japanese citizens in the Middle East, but also to Japanese values.  IS is abhorrent to him and he wants to help defeat it by providing development aid to the region.  Japan is the second largest contributor to Afghanistan, for example, after the United States.  To put this in some perspective, Japan's economy is about 5 times larger than that of South Korea, but while S. Korea has given $10 million in aid in the Middle East, Japan has committed $200 million.

Relations between China and Japan have been difficult, as have relations between China and smaller Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines.  None of them like China's expansion of power in the region, particularly in the South China Sea (or East Ocean as it is known here).  This is why Japan is strongly behind the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the major free trade treaty the U.S. is negotiating with Pacific Rim nations.

Japan used to be N. Korea's second largest export market after China, but Japan closed its market to the North Koreans after that country's first nuclear test in 2006.  In addition, Japan is very frustrated about the North Korean kidnappings of their citizens in the 1950's, which North Korea refuses to acknowledge (and, obviously, for those kidnap victims still alive, refuses to return to Japan).

In Africa, Japan is increasingly active.  They see development assistance as a primary means of influence on that continent.  They also see 54 votes in the United Nations, critical to Japan's goal of becoming a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.  They provide some counter to China's growing influence in the region. 

Their investments are very different from China's.  Forty percent of Japan's investments in Africa are in infrastructure, which provides more durable and higher quality projects than those financed by China.  Equally important, Japan hires local Africans to build the projects (roads, ports, water systems, hospitals, energy development), while China brings in Chinese to do the labor.  They have become the beneficiaries of China's hard push/hard sell approach to international aid and to the poor quality and negative environmental impacts of Chinese investments.

More on Japan's economy in my next blog.