Light of the rising sun emerges
p. 18 · Read in the full issue
WHEN, after nearly two years of agonising, the Japanese Parliament passed a bill allowing its troops to serve overseas with United Nations’ peace-keeping missions, it was a significant move towards Japan exercising political and security leadership commensurate with its economic power.
When three ships of the Self- Defence Forces made another tour of Asian and Pacific ports recently, it provided a further reminder that
Japan was shrugging off a long
standing insistence on hiding the light of its rising sun under a bushel.
Both moves raised Japan’s pro file, internationally and regionally a profile it has been reluctant, for obvious reasons, to elevate.
There has, over the years, been no shortage of critics, at home and
abroad, who have maintained (for historical reasons) that Japan, while an economic superpower, should not claim its rightful status in the world order.
This is an outdated view that no country in our part of the world or probably any other can afford to retain. No nation is likely to be of more importance to New Zealand, Australia or any of the island states in the 21st century than
Japan.
While it has generally kept a low profile in terms of a physical presence, Japan has quietly been fulfilling interna tional obligations in line with its wealth for some years.
It is probably not widely known, for instance, that Japan is the second biggest contributor to the United Nations after the United States, paying 12.5% of the total UN budget half that of the US, but more than the contributions of Britain, France and China combined.
And last year, Japan again became the world’s biggest aid donor, lifting its assistance to developing countries by nearly 20% to more than SUSII billion.
All this is of growing importance to the South Pacific, especially as New Zealand, which reduced its aid again in this year’s budget, struggles to keep its overseas development assistance above 0.2% of gnp, a mark dubbed “measly” by at least one cabinet minister.
The lion’s share (nearly two-thirds) of Japan’s aid naturally goes to its nearest neighbours in Asia, but Oceania gets 1.4% modest enough in percentage terms, but with an aid budget of that size, a not inconsiderable amount. It is, for instance, larger than the total aid monies New Zealand dispenses worldwide.
And Japan would put more into the region if the island states were capable of absorbing it without dangerously distorting their economies.
Japan began its modern-day focus on the South Pacific in 1987 when then Foreign Minister Tadashi Kuranari visited Suva and expounded what became known as the “Kuranari Doctrine”.
Since then, Japanese aid to the region has increased nearly five-fold. Today it accounts for up to 35% of the total bilateral assistance some countries, including Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Western Samoa, receive.
In addition, Japan gives an annual grant to the South Pacific Forum secretariat which it increased by 25% to SUSSOO,OOO this year. (This is significant evidence of Japan’s commitment to developing links with the region because it
broke its own rules to do it. The regulations say Japan cannot .give aid to an organisation of which it is not a member. It has made an exception for the Forum).
It also takes the head of govern ment of the Forum host country and the secretary-general to Tokyo each year for consultations, partici pates in the annual post-Forum dialogue and has observer status with several of the organisation’s technical committees.
It is an observer at meetings of the South Pacific Commission and has shown interest in joining. That question is currently being con sidered as the SPG reviews its founding principles, including membership criteria.
The South Pacific stands to gain further from Japan’s substantial
contributions to global environmental problems. It provided SUS3.I billion worth of environment-related aid between 1989-91 and pledged at the Rio Earth Summit to expand this to SUS 7.7 billion over the next five years, Japan’s grants and technical assistance to the region is supported by Overseas Cooperation Volunteers the equivalent of America’s Peace Corps who have worked in a number of island countries at grassroots level.
With few natural resources, Japan has prospered on the strength of its educated people, says Hajime Sasaki, counsellor at the Japanese Embassy in Wellington. “In the light of our experience, we believe that developing human resources, although it takes time and money, is the basic requirement for the development of a country.”
That is why, he says, Japanese aid is concentrated on technical co-operation, technology transfer and education.
Another key to development, of course, is trade. There has been progress in this area over the last few years but
probably not enough.
International Monetary Fund statistics show that while Japan’s imports from around the world increased 84% between 1984-90, and 75% from the whole of Oceania, including Australia and New Zealand, they rose only 61% from the rest of the Pacific region.
Even then, they were largely limited to Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia, from whom Japan buys substantial amounts while importing very little from the other island states.
New Zealand Japan expert lan Kennedy suggests a possible solution would be the establishment of a South Pacific Trade Office (similar to those in Auckland and Sydney) in Tokyo. Funding it, he says, would be a good use of Japanese aid funds.
There is a snag Japanese rules forbid the use of aid money on commercial operations. But Japan bent the rules to give money to the Forum, and Kennedy suggests calling it a Trade Liaison Office might do the trick. The island states certainly need all the help they can get in a complex market like Japan. It’s worth thinking about.