JAPAN UPDATES

By Consul General Yoshi Kamo

At the Outrigger Yacht and Canoes Club

October 13, 2010

It is my honor to have a chance to speak to you on JAPAN UPDATES or what is happening in Japan now at this YUSHINNKAI luncheon today thanks to Mrs. Ariyoshi’s invitation. Since I came here, I have never done a lecture on serious topics in English.

I took the offer very seriously. I did my home work to prepare my remarks that comes in a five page papers as you see. But as I walked in this beautiful terrace and saw you all enjoying sunshine, sea breeze and relaxing atmosphere, I was caught in a mood that I should drop the idea of giving a serious lecture by way of reading a prepared text but to try an all fresh improvisation remarks so I may sound more acceptable. But I don’t want to take chances. I don’t want to have all of my work gone to waste. So I think I will try my very best to go a middle way, trying to make my remarks less structured and more spontaneous, while following the basic topic line I originally conceived.

(Politics)

It is once said that while Japan’s economy is the first-class, its politics the second-class. Japanese politics currently undergoes seismic change. The Government has been changed from Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Japanese people said no to LDP who led Japan to prosperity in the post-war period in order to make over the stagnant economy and the stifling society. They desired for a fresh start to revitalize the society by changing the government. The Hatoyama government, overconfident of popular support for them, went too fast to reform the economic and social policies. They fumbled with the Futenma Marine base relocation issue and soured its relationship with the US government. Prime Minister Hatoyama had to resign, along with Mr. Ozawa and Mr. Kan became the Prime Minister of Japan. 

DPJ with Prime Minister Kan suffered a serious setback when they lost the upper house elections in July, 2010, losing their   majority. September, 2010, saw a duel between Prime Minister Kan and the former Party Secretary General Ozawa for LDP leadership. Mr. Kan prevailed and the Kan government survived. Mr. Ozawa, meanwhile, was caught in a legal procedure in which he is bound to be indicted for his possible involvement with an illegal political donation case. What is the agenda of the Kan government? Politician- led democracy, prioritizing social and welfare issues, consorted diplomacy are some of them. What is more important is whether the political structural change will happen in Japan. Politics in Japan can be potentially volatile, at the same time, old timers never die. There is a strong inertia in politics. In any case, it is fair to say that Japanese politics is in transition.

(Economy)

The Japanese economy lacks steam. Over-valued currency, under-valued stocks, deflationary trend in prices, fiscal imbalance are some of the problems we are facing. The root cause for the difficulty we face derives from shrinking and aging population. We failed to attain the growth in productivity to offset the adverse effect of these problems. It is also affected by globalization. DPJ adopts a new economic approach and tries to shift the priority from supply side measures to demand side ones. We have to wait and see how this will play out. Money handouts for children, exempting highway tolls, free high school education are pursued to stimulate the domestic demand. Consumers won’t get motivated to increase their consumption since they apprehend for their future. We are supposed to cope with both fiscal discipline and economic expansion. Deflation is detrimental to boosting economy or balancing fiscal deficit. So to get out of the deflationary cycle should come first for any remedies prescribed.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Maehara, attaches importance to economic diplomacy. His agendas include natural resources diplomacy, establishing FTA and EPA (strengthening free trade regime), export of infrastructure (nuclear power station, high speed rail, environmental technology, industrial plant etc). Japan’s technical prowess does not necessarily promise its successful bidding. Price, marketing and financing arrangement are sometimes play an important role in doing a successful business. There is much more that Japan can and should learn. Under the Hawaii Okinawa Cooperation, we seek to collaborate with each other in developing a new green technology. We look forward to forming a promising joint project in green technology between Hawaii and Okinawa.

I am afraid that I might sound gloomy, when I described new trends and developments in Japan. But wait. There are strong points about Japan. Pursuit of technology, of ultimate service, of cohesion in society is still intact. You just cannot apply the scale of other cultures and countries with Japan. I believe that Japanese will get united and take action when facing with the genuine national crisis. I am rather optimistic that a young leader will appear at the time of these crises to lead the nation. You know that Japanese love Japan. Their trust in their mother country is just second to none.    

(Diplomacy)

Recently two diplomatic issues rocked Japan. They are the Futenma issue with the U.S. and the collision incident of a Chinese fishing boat against the Japan’s Coast Guard patrol boat in Japan’s territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands. The former made Prime Minister Hatoyama to step down, the latter put Prime Minister Kan to criticism.

The relocation of U.S. Marines Corp. Futenma Base was at issue over the years between the U.S. and Japanese authorities. They agreed on a compromised solution. But the new Japanese government reviewed the agreement because that was part of their election campaign promises. The U.S. was not happy and acted accordingly. Mr. Hatoyama resigned because of the cooling of U.S. Japan relationship and other domestic reasons. After his assumption of Japan’s premiership, Mr. Kan made effort to rectify the relationship with the U.S. His government reassured the U.S. in May that Japan would stay with the original agreement. Things have returned to normalcy, but Okinawa still keeps its stance to oppose the agreement. The smooth implementation of the U.S. - Japan agreement on Futenma needs the understanding and cooperation of the people of Okinawa. The Japanese government has only half done.

The U.S. Japan relations were tested with a row between Japan and China regarding an collision incident by the Chinese fishing boat in the Japanese territorial waters near the Senkaku Islands. The Japanese authorities found the action taken by the Chinese boat, namely, intentionally ramming on the Japanese patrol boat a serious violation of Japanese laws and thus arrested the crew and put them into custody. While the Japanese authorities took measures in accordance with the domestic laws of Japan, China took over-reactive responses. They took several counter measures against Japan to influence the Japanese legal proceedings. They stopped human exchanges between the two countries both at the grass-roots and high ranking officials level. They discouraged Chinese tourists visiting Japan. They intervened to ban the export of natural resources, namely, rare earth, to Japan. When they arrested Japanese nationals for minor violations and put them into custody, the Japanese side broke down. The Japanese prosecutors released the Chinese captain before they took further action to decide whether he is to be indicted nor not, saying that they released the captain for the sake of maintaining the Japan China relations. While the Japanese acquiesced, China demanded apology and reparation from Japan. Only recently, they released the Japanese national from house-arrest and stopped mentioning apology and reparation. The handling by the Kan government of the issue was criticized by the Japanese people and his approving rate has dropped considerably. China reminded Japanese and the rest of the world of their naked ambitions and self-serving actions. They made it very clear that their claim of peaceful rise was a deceptive slogan.

Senkaku Islands are integral part of the Japanese territory. There is no territorial dispute over them. Japan add Senkaku to its territory in the end of the 19^th century following the procedures the international laws required. It took ten years to prepare for this acquisition. Since then Japan has been effectively controling the Islands. There used to be several hundred inhabitants and a food processing factory there. Even the People’s Daily of China or Chinese Maps in the post war era mentioned that the Islands belong to Japan. Taiwan and China began voicing their claim over the Senkaku Islands only after 1970s when a scientific research indicated that natural mineral may be sitting in the continental shelf in the area.

（Hate and guilt）

I am afraid that I am sounding too nationalistic. That is not what I intended. My point is simple. China is trying to pretend that there exists a territorial dispute over Senkaku by making a loud noise and behaving emotionally. That is the point that I would like you to take away.

I would like to conclude my remarks by telling you an interesting story about China and Japan. Some of you may wonder why China is always so indignant against Japan, revealing no sign of tolerance after all these years. Hate is created among Chinese people intentionally by their government. The China-Japan relationship after the war has been structured by hate on the Chinese side and guilt on the Japanese side. This duo of hate and guilt has got along rather well in shaping the post war era Asia. China wanted to take advantage of the Japanese guilty consciousness for their diplomatic leverage against Japan, while Japan did let herself suffer from this self-imposed disadvantage in the hope that she would be eventually forgiven and exorcized. This is a very peculiar, deeply Japanese psyche that others don’t quite well understand. China did everything to keep this guilt card intact over the years, to which Japan dare not oppose. Above all, China’s political drive for hate education against Japan in schools turned the image of Japan from bad to worse in the young Chinese minds across the nation. But you did a terrible thing to them, you may say. Yes, we did. What else can I say?

A couple of years ago, I was Japan’s Consul General to Houston, Texas and I had a chance to meet with a bright Chinese P.H.D. candidate from Nanjing at a party held at Texas A &M University, College Station, Texas. We sat at a same table and we just had a general conversation. He told me that he was originally from North East Province, former Manchuria. I asked him a candid question as to why North East Province produced more Chinese students studying in Japan than anywhere else. As a matter of fact, the majority of students studying in Japan from China come from the three provinces in North East China which was formerly called Manchuria, contrary to the conventional wisdom that hatred is deepest there as Japan occupied and ruled before and during the war. He said bluntly that it was because the local people there knew Japanese well, while people in the rest of China did not have any idea about what Japanese were like. It seems to me that it makes a lot of sense to assume that Chinese and Japanese farmers toiled side by side and sometimes helped each other in the harsh terrain of Manchuria and nurtured a sense of comradeship between them. People in the rest of China lack that experience and are susceptible to rumors and disinformation.

Isn’t this a nice story? In any case, what I am trying to get at is that there exists a tacit understanding between China and Japan as to how the two nations play the game in the post war era. With China’s rise, this frame has become rapidly irrelevant. Senkaku could be a wakeup call to many Japanese who have been dwelling on their pacifist dream. We have to face with reality. Senkaku brings us home the importance of diplomacy backed by effective force.

Thank you for your kind attention.

(c) Consulate General of Japan in Honolulu
1742 Nuuanu Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96817 USA
Tel: 808-543-3111