CHAPTER TWO:
BASIC OBJECTIVES OF
JAPAN'S FOREIGN POLICY
This chapter describes the basic objectives of Japan's foreign policy in the international environment surrounding Japan as reviewed in Chapter One.
1. With narrow land space and poor natural resources, Japan heavily depends on the international environment for its surrival. It has no other choice than to make persistent endeavors toward international harmony in order to ensure its existence. Moreover, against the background of growing interdependence among nations today, Japan is strengthening its ties with the international community in every aspect of human life.
As Japan's economic strength grows, its position in the international community has been strengthened accordingly. This owes much to the wisdom and efforts of the Japanese people. Since the end of World War II, Japan has consistently followed the path of a nation devoted to peace. While maintaining national security by equipping itself with the necessary minimum self-defense force permissible under the Japanese constitution, and by a firm commitment to maintaining the security arrangements with the United States, Japan has endeavored to promote interchanges and cooperation with other countries.
In proportion to Japan's strengthened international position the expectation in the international community is also mounting that Japan should play an active role and fulfill its responsibilities toward world peace and prosperity, particularly for the stable expansion of the world economy.
2. Turning to recent developments in the international community, the 1970s have seen such moves as the U.S.-China rapprochement which lead to the normalization of their diplomatic relations, the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China and the consequent development in their cooperative relations, the termination of the Vietnam War and the ensuing events on the Indochinese Peninsula, the moves of the ASEAN countries to cope with the Indochinese situation, and disturbances in the Middle East and Africa. In the field of economics a recession on a global scale set in, triggered by the oil crisis. Consequently, protectionist pressure has increased, and the economic difficulties of the developing nations have grown. Most recently, disputes and confrontations on the Indochinese Peninsula have been intensified, the Indochinese refugee problem has grown serious, and the international energy situation has become aggravated. Looking ahead to the coming 1980s, Japan has to prepare for a more rigorous and complex international environment.
In today's world, political, economic and other activities are closely. intertwined with one another, and interdependence and complementariness among nations have grown. Thus it has become even clearer that all nations cannot cope with the various problems they face in an effective manner, unless they avoid confrontations and seek conciliation and cooperation based on mutual understanding.
3. At this juncture, Japan must, of its own accord, make positive contributions to the peace and prosperity of the world through its economic strength and political influence. It is only by pursuing an active diplomacy in a global perspective that Japan can find the way to ensure veritable peace and prosperity in the rigorous international environment in the coming years.
With these views in mind Japan must endeavor to secure a favorable international environment which is indispensable for national security and for the prosperous life of the people, while meeting the expectations of the international community. The basic Japanese foreign policy objectives to be pursued can be summarized as follows:
(1) First of all, for the peace and stability of Asia and the world, Japan must play an active diplomatic role and fulfill political responsibilities befitting its international position, thwarting the destabilizing elements and promoting the stabilizing ones.
From this point of view, it is essential for Japan to keep making efforts to build an international environment to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula in cooperation with the United States and other nations concerned. In Indochinese affairs, Japan also must make positive efforts toward cooperation with the ASEAN and other countries so that peace may be recovered in the region and relations of "live-and-let-live" may be established between the ASEAN countries and the Indochinese countries. As regards the problem of the Indochinese refugees that constitutes a destabilizing factor in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan needs to make a positive contribution to the international efforts, including further step-up of financial aid and admitting more refugee settlement in Japan. Furthermore, hoping the achievement of stability, and especially the realization of a just and lasting comprehensive peace in the Middle East, Japan must make what contribution it can on its own to help stabilize the people's lives in the countries of this region.
The cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy is of course laid on its close relations of friendship and cooperation with the United States including the security arrangements. Needless to say, it continues to be a very important policy objective to make constant efforts to stengthen the relations of mutual trust between Japan and the United States, to maintain and develop stable economic relations, and to further develop the cooperative relations between these two countries in a global perspective. It has also become increasingly important to promote close and wide-ranging cooperative relations with Western European nations, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, Japan will make further efforts to promote extensive and friendly relations with the Republic of Korea and Southeast Asian countries such as the ASEAN countries and Burma, as well as to increase interchanges and deepen mutual understanding with Southwest Asian countries. On the other hand, it is also important to promote dialogues and to maintain stable relations with nations possessing different economic, social and political systems, particularly to promote further friendly relations with such neighboring countries as China and the Soviet Union, which play an important role in the international community. Furthermore, Japan must take positive diplomatic actions to promote friendship, cooperation and dialogue with the countries of the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
In addition to the above, it is important to promote arms control measures such as disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation that will contribute to the stabilization of international relations. Japan, as a nation devoted to peace, must contribute positively to international cooperation in this field.
(2) Second, Japan must positively contribute to the international efforts to lead the world economy toward stable expansion. It is through efforts in the economic field that Japan can make its greatest contribution to the international community, and such efforts are inseparably related to those in the political field.
It is necessary for Japan to aim at managing its economy in such a way as to positively contribute to the harmonious development of the world economy. To this end Japan must continue to pursue economic management which gives priority to expansion of domestic demand, taking into account the necessity of maintaining external balance. Japan also has to redouble its effort to further open up its market, to rationalize its distribution system, and to promote improvement of its economic constitution so as to be able to adjust itself to structural changes of the world economy.
At the same time, in cooperation with the United States and Western European nations that play key and indispensable roles for a stable and prosperous world economy, Japan must continue to make efforts to expel protectionism and maintain a free and open trading system. In this connection, it is of vital importance for Japan to expedite domestic measures to implement the results of the Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations as soon as possible.
(3) Third, in view of the recent aggravation of the energy situation, Japan must contribute even more positively to the international efforts to solve energy problems in cooperation with other countries concerned through the International Energy Agency (IEA) and other opportunities.
It is necessary for Japan to try to save energy on the one hand, and to participate actively in the international cooperation to solve long-term energy problems on the other. Such efforts will include cooperation with the United States in research and development in energy and other related fields as well as the development of alternate and new energy sources. It is particularly necessary that peaceful utilization of atomic power, one of the most important forms of energy to replace petroleum, should be promoted internationally in such a way as to avoid nuclear proliferation. It is desirable that Japan positively contribute to the international efforts in this direction.
(4) Fourth, Japan must play an active part in the international efforts to successfully solve the North-South problem. It would be necessary for Japan, having close relations with developing countries, to take the initiative in the efforts to bring about harmonious and cooperative relations between the North and the South. In past years, too, Japan has been trying to increase official development aid to the developing nations and strengthen preferential treatment in trade in their favor in order to assist their own efforts for economic and social development. Still, Japan must further improve the official development aid both in quantity and quality, as well as continue to promote various measures to encourage the exports of the developing countries and stabilize their incomes, including those dealing with primary commodity problems. Furthermore, Japan must strengthen cooperation with developing countries for their human resources and agricultural development.
4. Diplomacy should be based on mutual trust among nations and peoples. As a basic groundwork to achieve the above-mentioned four objectives, Japan must make a constant effort to promote mutual understanding between its people and people of other nations. In this sense, Japan must make special efforts to promote cultural exchanges with other countries, and through this, better understanding of Japan on the part of other countries.