The Common Agenda in the 21st Century

March, 1997

Introduction As the tragic worldwide consequences of the Pacific theater of World War II clearly demonstrates, the relationship between Japan and the United States is of global significance. Japan's remarkable recovery since the end of the war is largely due to the security arrangements between the United States and Japan, the open American market, which accepted Japanese products, and the industrious efforts of the Japanese people. (Please consult the following chart for postwar changes in the share of Japanese exports to the United States.) Japan and the United States have become partners in addressing today's global issues. The Common Agenda provides the framework within which the potential for cooperation between Japan and the United States in addressing such global issues can be realized. The Common Agenda is producing remarkable results, which neither Japan nor the United States could achieve if they worked independently from each other.

Establishing the Common Agenda New Perspectives Demonstrated by the Japan-U.S. Common Agenda Expansion of the Common Agenda's Scope Various Success Stories Conclusions

The United States had accumulated a large trade deficit with Japan and the bilateral economic conflict was mounting when the Clinton Administration assumed office for its first term. There was a tendency for the Japan-U.S. relationship to be affected by economic problems, and, at least in the economic sphere, it could not be considered a very amicable relationship, as symbolized by the repeatedly used term "economic conflict." The Japanese authorities were therefore deeply concerned that the two countries would not be in a position to realize their responsibilities in the international community and their relationship would further deteriorate if the two leading economic powers continued to concentrate only on criticizing each other on individual economic matters. (Note that the combined GNP of Japan and the United States accounts for more than 40 percent of world GNP.)

At the same time, however, the Japan-U.S. relationship had achieved concrete forms of cooperation at the specialist level in various fields, such as the environment, population issues, medical science, and industrial exchanges, to name only the most important ones. Japan and the United States, which are the world's two largest donor countries, also cooperated in official development assistance (ODA) programs for developing countries.

The Prime Minister of Japan and the President of the United States therefore agreed to build a sound and successful partnership between the two nations. They also agreed that in-depth discussions on current initiatives and future strategies for cooperation in addressing global issues should take place between high-level officials in order to promote close Japan-U.S. cooperation. It was subsequently decided that a "Common Agenda" would be established as a framework for the new level of cooperation between Japan and the United States, and that such cooperation would be based on the Global Partnership, which had proceeded under the Bush Administration.

It is for these reasons that Prime Minister Miyazawa and President Clinton announced the "Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspective" as a part of the Japan-U.S. Framework Talks at the Japan-U.S. Summit Meeting in July 1993. In a joint statement both sides agreed on a new Japan-U.S. economic partnership as follows:

(i) To hold summit meetings twice a year and report on the progress of and achievements under the Common Agenda;

(ii) to hold meetings twice a year at the undersecretary level and a few weeks prior to the summit meeting in order for government officials from both sides to prepare reports to be presented at the summit meeting;

(iii) to include such areas as the environment, technology, human resource development, population, and AIDS; and

(iv) to establish working groups comprising representatives from all the related departments, ministries, and agencies with a view to promote a dialogue within the framework of the Common Agenda.

The Vice-Minister Level Plenary Meeting has been held six times over the last three and a half years--that is, since the establishment of the Common Agenda. Japan and the United States have attempted to address global problems of an increasingly crucial nature. Thus, new initiatives have been added to the 15 issues that were originally identified. The new initiatives include: Women in Development (WID); Children's Health; Global Food Supply; Natural Disaster Reduction; and Counterterrorism. The Common Agenda now comprises 26 initiatives summarized under five main categories--namely, Promoting Health and Human Development; Responding to Challenges to Global Stability; Protecting the Global Environment; Advancing Science and Technology; and Fostering Exchanges for Mutual Understanding.

New Perspectives Demonstrated by the Japan-U.S. Common Agenda

(1) It is quite obvious that global issues, such as protecting the global environment, population, and AIDS, by their very nature cannot be solved individually by states by addressing them within the confined space of their sovereign territory only. Global issues, such as the long history of polluted transnational rivers in Europe and recent global warming effects caused by climate change, present a challenge to which countries must adjust their policies and respond in a cooperative and coordinated manner. The living environment and ultimately national security will be threatened if such global issues are ignored and international cooperation is delayed.

It was only after the end of the Cold War that the international community began preparing itself to address global issues.

It is worth noting in this context that the "Civil Society and Democratization" initiative was added in April 1996 to the Common Agenda category of Responding to Challenges to Global Stability. Under this initiative, Japan and the United States will support and monitor election preparations and strengthen legal frameworks in order to promote the development of civil societies in newly emerging democratic countries. El Salvador agreed to be the first country to receive such support. Japan and the United States cooperate closely with the Government of El Salvador. Such international joint efforts to cooperate with a specific country by participating directly in the political system of a sovereign country has become possible. In the past such an initiative might have been branded as foreign interference in domestic affairs. That such joint efforts are now possible would suggest a definite change in some perceptions of the international community.

Even before the Clinton Administration, Japan and the United States had a history of cooperation in addressing global issues as they do now under the framework of the Common Agenda. However, changes in the perception of the international community have enabled this cooperation to grow and expand greatly since President Clinton assumed office.

(2) The second new perspective is that it will be difficult to achieve meaningful results under the Common Agenda if cooperation is limited to the Governments of Japan, the United States, and the third country directly involved. Cooperation with other countries, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector is needed. At present, there are more than 200 on-going projects under the 26 initiatives that fall under the five main categories of the Common Agenda. These projects cover all aspects of people's lives. However, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to proceed effectively under these initiatives without receiving the cooperation of NGOs, which work closely with local people. The relationship between Japanese ODA and international NGOs has become closer as a result of this.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC), an American environmental NGO, conducts wide-ranging activities geared to the protection of the global environment, such as the "Parks in Peril Program," which aims at protecting nature reserves. Japan and the United States collaborate in the protection activities of TNC and other NGOs mainly in Central and South America and Caribbean countries. In fiscal 1994 Japan provided grant aid to TNC and other associated NGOs in nine countries through a grass-roots grant aid scheme. In fiscal 1995 Japan provided grant aid to eight projects in six countries. TNC grants the Annual Latin American Awards annually every December to cooperating organizations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received TNC's award in 1994 for its grass-roots grant aid type of cooperation in the "Parks in Peril Program."

It should be noted under the Population and AIDS initiative that the Governments of Japan and the United States cooperate in assisting NGOs in developing countries, and, because of the Common Agenda, exchanges between NGOs of the two countries have made significant progress.

In addition, the "Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) Nature Protection Fund" has supported environmental NGOs at home and abroad by providing training programs and financial assistance. (Mr. Goto, chairman of the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. and deputy chairman of the Roundtable Conference of the Common Agenda, acts as the chairman of the management association.) The fund recently dispatched staff to a Japan-U.S. public- and private-sector joint research mission, which was to establish a coral reef conservation and research center in Palau. TNC also participated in this mission.

It should be emphasized, however, that under the framework of the Common Agenda not only cooperation with NGOs is anticipated in both countries but also cooperation with and among the private sector, industries, financial institutions, academic circles and so on. So far, personnel from the Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co., Ltd. and the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. have been on secondment to TNC. In the future it is expected that interaction among Japan's NGOs and those of the United States will be strengthened through the Common Agenda.

Expansion of the Common Agenda's Scope

Since its establishment three and a half years ago, we have seen the expansion of areas of cooperation, expansion of participants at the national level, and the expansion of international involvement in the Common Agenda.

(1) Expanding Initiatives of the Common Agenda

The Common Agenda addressed 15 initiatives at the time of its establishment--namely, Population, AIDS, Environmental Policy Dialogue, Oceans, Forests, Global Observation Information Network (GOIN), Environmental and Energy-efficient Technology, Conservation, Development Assistance for the Environment, Transport Technology, Electric Communications, Civil Industrial Technology, Road Technology, Disaster Prevention, Labor Exchanges, and Manufacturing Technology Fellowships. New initiatives were added in May 1994. These were Children's Health, Counternarcotics, Coral Reefs, and Networks/Institute for Global Change Research. The issue of Women in Development (WID) was added at the Japan-U.S. Summit Meeting in January 1995. Another six new initiatives were added in June 1995--namely, Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, Natural Disaster Reduction, Civil Society and Democratization, Counterterrorism, Global Food Supply, and Education Technology for the 21st Century. There are now 26 initiatives in all. This demonstrates that the Common Agenda has enough flexibility to incorporate and accommodate newly emerging global issues as they become more pressing.

Aside from the emergency support directly following an earthquake, international cooperation in countermeasures for earthquakes was actually not very pronounced in the past, since earthquake damage was perceived as a local or regional phenomenon. Then the Great Hanshin and Awaji Earthquake occurred in January 1995, and at a Japan-U.S. Summit Meeting in June of the same year Japan proposed to the United States, which had experienced the Los Angeles Earthquake in 1994, cooperation in overall measures on earthquakes, such as prediction, preparation for and disaster prevention, and reconstruction. As a result, the first Japan-United States Earthquake Symposium was held as an integral part of the Common Agenda (Natural Disaster Reduction initiative) in September 1996.

Under the Global Agenda, Japan and the United States promote global activities to prevent and decrease emerging infectious diseases, such as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, as well as reemerging diseases, such as tuberculosis (Emerging and Reemerging Diseases initiative). An international conference was held in Kyoto in July 1996, in which an expert of O-157 E.coli. participated by providing a lecture on his research in the United States. He attracted nationwide attention in Japan with his subject on that occasion. These examples illustrate the potential of the Common Agenda in incorporating problems in a timely manner.

(2) Enhancing the Agenda in Japan and the United States

The scope of participation in the Common Agenda has likewise been expanded gradually. The Common Agenda Roundtable was established in Japan in February 1996 by 16 members from the private sector. The third roundtable meeting was held in October 1996. The focus of this meeting was the discussion of global environmental issues, and the roundtable members proposed to add the environment and energy education in developing countries to the initiatives of the Common Agenda. Both the general public's awareness and understanding and cooperation between the public and private sectors are essential in order to promote the Common Agenda from a long-term perspective. With this requirement in mind, the roundtable was organized by representatives from NGOs, industries, and academia. The roundtable aims also at introducing the Common Agenda to members of the private sector and to promote its activities at Japan's private-sector level. The United States welcomes this trend in Japan. It is also a distinct asset that the members of the Common Agenda Roundtable are experts in various fields of expertise and not only in the field of the global environment. There is expertise in the field of viruses, population, agriculture, women�s issues, civil engineering, and so on, and hence the members are in a position to discuss global environmental issues under the Common Agenda in a multidisciplinary and integrated manner. The Common Agenda Roundtable will hold a workshop in April 1997 in order to discuss "The Environment and Energy Education" with participants from the private sector and NGOs in Japan and the United States. It is expected that the Common Agenda will become a significant force for cooperation between the Governments of Japan and the United States and between the people of the two countries.

(3) Enhancing the Agenda Globally

The Common Agenda has been enhanced not only in Japan and the United States but also in the world. For example, the first International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) and the Meeting of the East Asian Sea Area were held in Bali, Indonesia, in March 1996. Eleven countries and related international organizations, such as UNEP, RCU/EAS, UNESCO, and IOC, participated in this exercise. As a direct result of the discussions of the ICRI meeting, Japan and the United States dispatched a study mission for establishing an International Coral Reef Conservation and Research Center.

The Asia-Pacific Seminar on International Cooperation on Counterterrorism was held in December 1996 in Tokyo as the first concrete program on counterterrorism under the Common Agenda. Government officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Departments of the Interior, and National Police Agencies from some 11 countries participated in this meeting. The present situation on terrorism in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the promotion of international and Asia-Pacific cooperation in counterterrorism, were the subject of discussion. The seminar highlighted the importance of such cooperation.

Another example of the expansion of the Common Agenda is Japan-U.S. collaboration on forests. Both sides agreed, in addition to their already existing bilateral cooperation, to cooperate on the occasion of international meetings, including the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests (IPF).

These examples illustrate that both Japan and the United States assume responsibility for an increasing number of initiatives, which are important for the international community. They demonstrate likewise that Japan-U.S. cooperation under the framework of the Common Agenda is not an obstacle to multilateral cooperation but rather complements and strengthens it.

As a further step forward, Prime Minister Hashimoto announced at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on September 24, 1996, plans for the Common Agenda World Conference. He said:

"We would like to proceed further with such type of cooperation [under the Common Agenda] involving other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, as well as NGOs. We are therefore planning to host the Common Agenda World Conference in Japan next year."

Practical plans for this conference are yet to be discussed, but notwithstanding this fact, the objective of the conference will be to grasp and evaluate the actual projects under the Common Agenda. The conference will also aim at exchanging views with other countries, NGOs, and international organizations on various issues with a view to discussing a desirable direction for the Common Agenda in the coming 21st century. This conference should constitute the first summit for the international expansion of the Common Agenda.

Various Success Stories

Since its establishment in 1993, implementation of the Common Agenda has resulted in various successful projects or "success stories." Below is a brief description of such success stories.

(1) Children's Health (Health and Human Development)

Polio has virtually been eradicated from the South Pacific region as a result of Japan-U.S. cooperation to provide polio vaccines. Japan and the United States continue to implement activities geared to the eradication of polio in Africa. Both countries are implementing a far-reaching yet steadfast plan to eradicate polio worldwide by the year 2000.

(2) Population and AIDS (Health and Human Development)

Japan-U.S. joint projects were implemented in many developing countries for the purpose of supporting awareness activities to prevent AIDS infection and to provide equipment for HIV tests, as well as research. For example, in fiscal 1995 Japan and the United States supported through the provision of grass-roots grant aid the Aids Awareness Project of the Tanzania Aids Project, which is administered by an American NGO named Population Service International (PSI). Since 1996 the Japanese Government has provided two movable video units for promoting publications and awareness activities on HIV/AIDS, as well as family planning efforts in remote agricultural regions that cannot be reached by large vehicles. The video units have been employed to provide visual information, which made a strong impact on the people in these agricultural regions, for which access to other than radio broadcasted information was scarce. Hence, this project has been well received by local people.

(3) Counternarcotics (Responding to Challenges to Global Stability)

The crop substitution program for growing KAMKAM (a fruit rich in vitamin C to be commercialized in Europe, America and Japan), which has a significant commercial value in local areas, is on-going in Peru in order to promote the cultivation of substitute crops for coca leaves. Japan provided equipment for cultivation, and the United States dispatched experts.

(4) Coral Reefs (Protecting the Global Environment)

Coral reefs are very valuable marine ecosystems rich in biodiversity. They also constitute an important income resource for the tourism sector and local fishermen. Hence, based on the recommendations of a Japan-U.S. joint study, plans are underway to establish an international Coral Reefs Conservation and Research Center in Palau.

These examples demonstrate the broad scope of activities implemented under the Common Agenda. Each of the success stories is the result of effective cooperation between the private and public sectors of Japan and the United States, and each successful project has created another successful project. To give just one example, a first Coordination Committee Meeting was held by the Japanese Embassy in Nairobi based on a 1995 Japan-U.S. joint study on population and AIDS in Kenya. The objective of the meeting, in which JICA, USAID, and Kenya's Ministry of Health participated, was to promote concrete Japan-U.S. cooperation and make further progress in supporting Kenya through joint projects, such as project identification and formulation missions (1994, 1995), joint assistance to local NGOs, and cooperation in the eradication of polio. (The United States started such activities in 1996, and Japan is implementing activities in this area in 1997.)

Conclusions

International Cooperation in the 21st Century

(1) How should the Common Agenda be developed in the 21st century?

Japan and the United States will undoubtedly strengthen their cooperation system to address global issues. Japan has also started similar cooperation activities with other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Australia, to name only a few. Other industrialized countries, developing countries, international organizations, and NGOs will be invited to participate in the Common Agenda World Conference to be held in Tokyo in early 1998. The Common Agenda covers various fields, and it is therefore important to seek the know-how of and share experiences with other countries. European countries, for example, have assisted in the development of African countries, and they can provide their know-how to Japan and the United States.

(2) The cooperation between Japan and the United States possesses fascinating potential. The concept of social responsibility is deeply ingrained in European and American society, and Japan has outstanding economic power in the Asia-Pacific region. The two countries have naturally different historical and cultural backgrounds, and each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses in the arena of international cooperation. As for economic cooperation, the United States provides much cooperation through active NGOs and human networks, while Japan is the world's leader in providing ODA. Japan and the United States can cooperate and compensate for each other's weaknesses. Japan and the United States will advance their cooperation under the Common Agenda by sharing their specific expertise and experience in various fields in the 21st century.

(3) The expectations of Japan-U.S. cooperation as perceived by recipient countries will be amplified as an effective method for addressing global issues. The United Nations, the WTO, the EU, and so forth have attempted since the end of World War II to solve global issues under frameworks that go beyond the boundaries of countries. However, each country is afraid of losing its sovereignty, and international organizations have often faced strenuous resistance to make quick and decisive decisions. If the two leading economic powers, Japan and the United States, attempt therefore to alleviate and solve problems without delay by utilizing their economic strength, know-how, financial aid, and human networks, their cooperation will surely not be counterproductive for multilateral cooperation systems. In other words, the two countries will be in a position to meaningfully employ and strengthen multilateral cooperation systems in an efficient manner.

The Common Agenda, which has far-reaching potential, is therefore expected to play a more important and also wider role in the 21st century. Japan and the United States must pursue the Common Agenda with further vigor and determination in order for the world's next generation to lead peaceful and safe lives.

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