Journalists Symposium 2010
Leadoff Keynote Address by Mr. Koichi Takemasa, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs

March 3, 2010
Nippon Press Center Building, Tokyo

Japanese

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank you all for participating in Journalists Symposium 2010, sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Today I would like to share my thoughts on regional cooperation and Japan's basic thinking regarding this year's APEC meeting and also introduce the fundamental concept that underlies today's symposium.

(Japan's basic posture as the chair of APEC 2010)

This Journalists Symposium was first held in 1995. Nineteen ninety-five is also the year in which Japan first hosted the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, in Osaka. That was also the year in which I began my political career, so the APEC meeting in Osaka is for me still very vivid in my memory.

Fifteen years have passed since then, and once again Japan will host the APEC meeting. APEC entered its twentieth year last year, and so this is the year in which it kicks off its next twenty years. This year is also a milestone year as it is the deadline for APEC's industrialized economies to achieve what are known as the "Bogor Goals," which were formulated in 1994 to realize free and open trade and investment by 2010 for industrialized member economies and by 2020 for developing member economies. The theme that Japan has formulated for APEC this year is "Change and Action." Japan believes that APEC should envision necessary changes and shift those changes into concrete actions so that APEC can continue to have a meaningful presence into the future even as the situation surrounding the international community and the economies of the Asia-Pacific region undergo a dramatic transfiguration.

First of all, it is essential that assessment of the degree of achievement of the Bogor Goals attained by developed countries and regions is undertaken appropriately, through means that ensure credibility. On that basis, we will aim to formulate a vision that will lead the future development of the Asia-Pacific region to a still higher level. Within that vision, we intend to set forth three pillars of regional economic integration, new growth strategies, and human security and indicate the future direction in which APEC should proceed. In doing so, we seek to realize the greatest possible number of concrete outcomes.

(The current situation of the regional cooperation and community-building in the Asia-Pacific)

The year 1989, when APEC first came into being in a quest for new forms of collaboration around the Asia-Pacific region, was a turbulent year in which the Cold War was coming to an end. At around the same time that the first APEC Ministerial Meeting was being convened in Canberra in November, the major event of the fall of the Berlin Wall took place in Europe. In the twenty years since then, movement towards integration in Europe has been advancing steadily, despite some twists and turns along the way.

Originally, European integration was triggered after two world wars by strong political beliefs and a sense of crisis that should Germany and France wage all-out war a third time there would be no restoration of continental Europe. Integration started with the international co-management of the natural resources that had given rise to these wars. From this beginning, Europe consequently aspired strongly for institutional integration extending over political, economic, and social realms as a means of ensuring regional stability and prosperity. This is symbolized by the common currency of the euro and the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force last year. As background to this we also find both the quite well-defined confrontational state of the East and West blocs in Europe at that time and the region's shared religious, historical, and cultural background.

Meanwhile, in the Asia-Pacific region in which we are situated, the clash of East and West manifested itself in more concrete and tragic ways, namely the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Calls for regional integration had existed in general terms for quite some time, yet did not lead to steps forward in real terms, reflecting the differences amongst countries of this region in political systems and levels of development as well as their diversity of cultural and historical backgrounds.

Beginning in the late 1980's, however, movement towards regional integration became more concrete, against a backdrop of the demise of the Cold War structure of East vs. West, along with the democratization and economic development of countries within the region and the resulting intensification of economic mutual interdependence. This movement first materialized APEC in 1989, and after that, ASEAN+3 and other regional frameworks being born, each of which has tackled its own agenda. Such efforts have now diversified beyond the traditional international economic agenda of trade and investment to include economic and social development, countermeasures against terrorism and infectious diseases, and intellectual and people-to-people exchanges, among other areas.

In addition, as we combine these steps forward, recently there have been calls advocating a concept that aim for deepened regional integration grounded in the foundation of the collection of this diverse array of efforts. Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Hatoyama has also envisioned the East Asian community as a long-term vision to materialize an open region to share stability and prosperity on the basis of on-going cooperation.

Also in APEC, the Economic Leaders' Meeting and Ministerial Meeting in November last year directed that a range of possible pathways to achieve the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) be explored within 2010. An important issue this year, that Japan, as the chair of APEC, wants to engage in is sketching out such a vision for regional economic integration and advancing concrete efforts under it.

What is important here is building up a collection of individual concrete efforts and areas of cooperation. It is when we have this underlying support that developing a concept of a "community" becomes possible. This is because it is through such concrete efforts that the "faces" of the people living in this region become visible and their "voices" become audible, and the existence of our "neighbors" living in the region to which we belong -- whether that be "East Asia" or "the Asia-Pacific" -- will come to connect these concrete images in each of our minds.

The level of APEC intraregional trade is 65%, namely, as much as two-thirds of APEC member economies' total trade is conducted within APEC. As a result, the likelihood within our daily lives that we encounter goods originating from somewhere in the region surrounding the Pacific Ocean has been increasing. The new growth strategy that we are working to formulate in APEC 2010 is based on the idea that fostering a sense of identity and community consciousness within the region derives from individuals participating in the growth of the region as a whole and benefiting from both the fruits of that participation and the opportunities that can be derived from it, as well as cooperating in addressing the environment and energy issues. Moreover, if, through our efforts in the area of human security, we become able to increase our ability to respond to the threats of terrorism, disasters, and infectious diseases that hinder free and open trade and investment, we will be able to bring about regional stability and further strengthen intraregional trust and identity.

(Role of interchange of information and media in forging a sense of community)

In that regard, I would like to touch on the importance of free and active exchanges of information, especially taking into account the purpose of today's symposium. Of the volume of information that is exchanged in this region over networks, I believe we can say that intraregional information is overwhelmingly the most common, considering among other things the backdrop of our substantial economic mutual interdependence. Accordingly, the lifestyles and thinking of our "neighbors" around the region have come to be conveyed not only through secondary information via the print media but also directly to our eyes and ears via primary information that utilizes visual images and audio.

Today, we have asked you, journalists representing various areas around the region, to discuss Asia-Pacific regional cooperation. This is because you are working in the area of providing information, which is indispensable in elevating and establishing this region's sense of "presence." Indeed, it is because you shoulder the responsibility of perspectives that are crucial in looking back on how we have arrived at the concept of "community" and forecasting where we go from here -- that is, the "infrastructure" that will be the key in answering the questions, "Are we truly feeling a sense of identity as a region? Will we come to be able to feel it in the future?"

Naturally, the rapid intensification of information and communication will not necessarily yield only good outcomes. It may also result in a clearer recognition of our mutual differences and may also by extension lead to hotbeds of self-righteous nationalism. The development of the media has both positive and negative aspects in terms of whether or not we can attain a true sense of identity as a region. As one outcome of today's meeting, we are looking forward to your frank discussions on these aspects, which will influence the future vision of the Asia-Pacific region, based on your experiences in the field as journalists.

On the basis of these discussions, I would also be pleased if you could emerge with various ideas regarding the degree to which in the future the concepts of the East Asian community and the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific can be materialized, as well as the potential kinds of contributions by the media during that materialization process through the provision of information. I personally will also be very glad if this yields some hints for myself and other foreign policy-makers of Japan as we consider the kind of future vision to be sketched out for the further development of the Asia-Pacific region as Japan asserts leadership as the chair of APEC 2010.

Today we have with us reporters from Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines attending this meeting as observers. They are visiting Japan through the Journalists Training Program my Ministry provides. I am confident that for these individuals as well, today's discussions will serve as useful intellectual stimulation.

Allow me to close my remarks to you today by extending my sincere expectations for free and fruitful discussions today. Thank you very much for listening.