A politically rising Japan has become a crucial economic and security partner for India-TOI
Asian geopolitics will be shaped by the inexorable tightening of bonds between India and its largest source of foreign direct investment and aid, Japan. Underscoring the fast-multiplying ties between Asia's second- and third-largest economies, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is arriving to be the guest of honour at India's Republic Day parade, just weeks after the landmark Indian tour of Japan's venerated Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. The two countries are ramping up defence cooperation, as highlighted by Japanese defence minister Itsunori Ono-dera's visit earlier this month.
In modern history, Japan has had the distinction of consistently staying ahead of the rest of Asia. During the 1868-1912 Meiji era, it became the first Asian country to modernise. It was also the first Asian country to emerge as a world power, defeating Manchu-ruled China and Czarist Russia in separate wars. After its crushing defeat in World War II, Japan rose from the ashes rapidly to become Asia's first global economic powerhouse.
Specialising in the highest-value links of global supply chains, Japan ranks among the world's richest countries. With its Gini coefficient of 0.25, it boasts the lowest income inequality in Asia. By contrast, prosperous Singapore, with a high Gini coefficient of 0.48, ranks as one of Asia's most-unequal societies. Japan's per capita GDP of $37,000 means that its citizens, on purchasing power parity basis, are more than four times wealthier than the Chinese and nearly 10 times richer than Indians today.
To be sure, Japan's geopolitical clout has taken a beating due to its almost two decades of economic stagnation, a period in which China rose dramatically. But des-pite the media depicting Japan's decline in almost funereal terms, the truth is that its real per-capita income has increased faster than the US and Britain in this century, while its unemployment rate has long remained one of the lowest among important economies. It enjoys the highest life expectancy of any large country in the world.
Japan's trailblazing role in modern history raises the question of whether its current challenges, including population aging and sluggish economic growth, presage a similar trend across East Asia. Similar problems are now beginning to trouble South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, while China has been driven to loosen its one-child policy and unveil plans to reverse slowing economic growth.
Indeed, the most far-reaching but least-noticed development in Asia has been Japan's political resurgence. Japan's political rise should not be a surprise: In contrast to India's ignominious history of subjugation by foreign invaders for eight centuries until 1947, Japan, with its martial traditions, has historically punched above its weight — a record punctured only by its World War II defeat and occupation by the US. With Japan's pride and assertiveness now rising, its nationalist impulse and intent to influence Asia's power balance have become conspicuous.
Still, Japan faces stark choices today: Grow or bust; import labour or decline irreversibly; and bolster its security or come under siege. Abe's return to power in late 2012 marked a watershed in Japan's determination to reinvent itself as a more competitive and secure state. It has no option but to reflate, import labour, become more competitive and rearm.
History will repeat itself when Japan rearms — a profound deve-lopment likely to gain traction in this decade. Japan can no longer rely on America's security guarantee, given Washington's neutrality on Asia's territorial disputes, including over the Senkaku Islands, and its failure to come to the defence of Philippines, despite a mutual defence treaty, when China captured the Scarborough Shoal in 2012. Japan's rearming — without abandoning the US security umbrella — will boost its GDP and yield major profits for American defence firms.
For India, Japan is an indispensable economic partner, including as a leading source of capital and commercial technology. However, nothing has damaged corporate India's image in the 'Land of the Rising Sun' more than the saga of Ranbaxy Laboratories, whose takeover by a gullibleDaiichi Sankyo forced it to take a $3.9 billion writedown within months.
With the weakening yen set to spur greater Japanese capital outflows, India must seek to attract more funds from Japan so as to bridge its current-account gap. By making India the largest recipient of its overseas development assistance, Japan is playing a significant role to help improve India's poor infrastructure.
Japan, with shared interests and a world-class navy, is also a vital partner for India's security, including for adding strategic bulk to its 'Look East' policy. Japan's high-tech arms capability makes it an ideal partner for import-dependent India to build a domestic weapons-production base.
Abe, as part of his Asian stra-tegy of 'proactive pacifism' has pushed for close, enduring collaboration with India, traditionally respected in Japan as Tenjiku, or the heavenly country of Buddhism. If there is any potential pitfall to the India-Japan partnership, it is their messy domestic politics.
Through deep strategic ties, Japan and India — as Asia's natural-born allies — must lead the effort to build freedom, prosperity and stability in Asia. They have a central role to play in ensuring Asian power equilibrium and safeguarding vital sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific region, now the global trade and energy-supply hub. The transformative India-Japan entente promises to positively influence Asia's power dynamics and strategic future.
Counterweight to China
The chief guest for the Republic Day parade on January 26 will be a man that few Indians are familiar with. But Japan's dynamic newly re-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shaking things up in Asia and, as an ardent admirer of India, is set to take Indo-Japanese relations to a new level. India would be reluctant to join any alliance that Abe might wish but Japanis poised to become India's most important economic and strategic partner.
From building high-speed railway lines to investing billions of dollars in infrastructure and high-tech manufacturing, Japan is set to be a key partner in India's modernisation. Arms sales, military cooperation and joint military exercises could also enhance India's strategic heft in dealing with China.
The blossoming of the Indo-Japanese friendship is remarkable. India's former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh summed up India's friendly but distant relations for the first 50 years after Independence as, "Indira, the elephant in the Tokyo zoo, had far more coverage in Japanese newspapers than Indira, the prime minister of India."
That benign neglect ended with India's emergence as a nuclear power and growing challenge from China to the US-Japanese alliance. WithGeorge W Bush ready to end India's nuclear pariah status in order to balance Chinese power, Japan's anger about India's nuclear test also cooled. A succession of high-level visits followed, the most notable of which was Abe's first state visit in August 2007 when he addressed Parliament and called for a strategic global partnership in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. That year India and Japan took part in their first joint naval exercise with the US in the Pacific and Bay of Bengal.
In the intervening years, concerns about China in both New Delhi and Tokyo have grown, as Chinese and Japanese vessels have come into confrontation near the contested islands that Japan calls Senkakus and China Diaoyu. It is against this backdrop that the Japanese defence minister recently visited India to propose extensive military cooperation. India can expect Abe to press for intensified cooperation to ensure the security and navigability of vital sea lanes through South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Japan has offered to sell India (the first country to be offered) its state-of-the-art amphibious aircraft US-2 and other hardware.
As commercial relations with China sour, Japanese businesses would likely consider moving some of their investments to another large market like India. And India has the appetite for the types of infrastructure and manufacturing projects at which Japan excels. Tokyo has already promised $92 billion towards construction of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and is expected to announce the launch of the Bangalore-Chennai high-speed railway. Japan's lead in building smart grids, generating energy from waste and storage solutions could likewise create new opportunities for savvy Indian companies.
Of course, this prospective love-fest would need to be moderated by broader concerns. India may not feel as strongly about Abe's revisionist view about Japan's role in World War II as other Asian countries, which are outraged by his recent visit to the Yasukuni shrine honouring Japanese war criminals and politicians' attempt to deny wartime atrocities. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid had this reality in mind when he recently told a member of Japan's ruling coalition that it is best for Japan to learn from history and move on.
As Japan would undoubtedly push India to align more closely against China, Indian leaders would do well to also remember what another Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, said during his 2005 visit to India. Indo-Japanese relations will become more and more important strategically. "But at the same time, it is important to have friendly Sino-Japanese ties."
Strengthening cooperation with Japan is not to provoke China but to signal India has other options if China does not reciprocate its friendly gesture. The sight of Abe cheering on Republic Day celebrations should provide Beijing with a good visual reminder of this lesson.
India and Japan must expand economic and security cooperation
With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the chief guest at the upcoming 65th Republic Day celebrations, New Delhi and Tokyo have a historic opportunity to take bilateral ties to the next level. In fact, global circumstances over the last few years have brought India and Japan closer. This culminated in the recent landmark visit of the Japanese Emperor and Empress to India, signalling a watershed moment in the two-way relationship. Both countries share significant complementarities that can entice meaningful cooperation in sectors ranging from manufacturing and IT to defence and education.
There's no denying that much of the recent bonhomie between New Delhi and Tokyo can be primarily attributed to two factors — Abe's return as Japanese PM and the rise of an assertive China, as evidenced by its strident position on territorial disputes with countries along its borders. Abe, a known friend of New Delhi, has chosen to adopt a robust approach to counter Beijing's assertiveness. This in turn means that capital-rich Japan is on the lookout for markets other than China. And an infrastructure-hungry India with a young population is perfectly poised to leverage Japanese investments. In fact, New Delhi should use Abe's visit to push big-ticket infrastructure projects akin to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor that could attract Japanese investors.
On the security front, both sides have already decided to expand cooperation in maritime security, counter terrorism and anti-piracy operations. And with Japan relaxing its 1967 ban on defence exports, India becomes a potential buyer. The strategic partnership between the two countries should become an important pole of India's foreign policy. As it is, the momentum behind New Delhi's Look East policy starts ebbing beyond the Asean nations. With countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan looking for greater regional cooperation and new partners, India must make the most of circumstances.
Asian geopolitics will be shaped by the inexorable tightening of bonds between India and its largest source of foreign direct investment and aid, Japan. Underscoring the fast-multiplying ties between Asia's second- and third-largest economies, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is arriving to be the guest of honour at India's Republic Day parade, just weeks after the landmark Indian tour of Japan's venerated Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. The two countries are ramping up defence cooperation, as highlighted by Japanese defence minister Itsunori Ono-dera's visit earlier this month.
In modern history, Japan has had the distinction of consistently staying ahead of the rest of Asia. During the 1868-1912 Meiji era, it became the first Asian country to modernise. It was also the first Asian country to emerge as a world power, defeating Manchu-ruled China and Czarist Russia in separate wars. After its crushing defeat in World War II, Japan rose from the ashes rapidly to become Asia's first global economic powerhouse.
Specialising in the highest-value links of global supply chains, Japan ranks among the world's richest countries. With its Gini coefficient of 0.25, it boasts the lowest income inequality in Asia. By contrast, prosperous Singapore, with a high Gini coefficient of 0.48, ranks as one of Asia's most-unequal societies. Japan's per capita GDP of $37,000 means that its citizens, on purchasing power parity basis, are more than four times wealthier than the Chinese and nearly 10 times richer than Indians today.
To be sure, Japan's geopolitical clout has taken a beating due to its almost two decades of economic stagnation, a period in which China rose dramatically. But des-pite the media depicting Japan's decline in almost funereal terms, the truth is that its real per-capita income has increased faster than the US and Britain in this century, while its unemployment rate has long remained one of the lowest among important economies. It enjoys the highest life expectancy of any large country in the world.
Japan's trailblazing role in modern history raises the question of whether its current challenges, including population aging and sluggish economic growth, presage a similar trend across East Asia. Similar problems are now beginning to trouble South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, while China has been driven to loosen its one-child policy and unveil plans to reverse slowing economic growth.
Indeed, the most far-reaching but least-noticed development in Asia has been Japan's political resurgence. Japan's political rise should not be a surprise: In contrast to India's ignominious history of subjugation by foreign invaders for eight centuries until 1947, Japan, with its martial traditions, has historically punched above its weight — a record punctured only by its World War II defeat and occupation by the US. With Japan's pride and assertiveness now rising, its nationalist impulse and intent to influence Asia's power balance have become conspicuous.
Still, Japan faces stark choices today: Grow or bust; import labour or decline irreversibly; and bolster its security or come under siege. Abe's return to power in late 2012 marked a watershed in Japan's determination to reinvent itself as a more competitive and secure state. It has no option but to reflate, import labour, become more competitive and rearm.
History will repeat itself when Japan rearms — a profound deve-lopment likely to gain traction in this decade. Japan can no longer rely on America's security guarantee, given Washington's neutrality on Asia's territorial disputes, including over the Senkaku Islands, and its failure to come to the defence of Philippines, despite a mutual defence treaty, when China captured the Scarborough Shoal in 2012. Japan's rearming — without abandoning the US security umbrella — will boost its GDP and yield major profits for American defence firms.
For India, Japan is an indispensable economic partner, including as a leading source of capital and commercial technology. However, nothing has damaged corporate India's image in the 'Land of the Rising Sun' more than the saga of Ranbaxy Laboratories, whose takeover by a gullibleDaiichi Sankyo forced it to take a $3.9 billion writedown within months.
With the weakening yen set to spur greater Japanese capital outflows, India must seek to attract more funds from Japan so as to bridge its current-account gap. By making India the largest recipient of its overseas development assistance, Japan is playing a significant role to help improve India's poor infrastructure.
Japan, with shared interests and a world-class navy, is also a vital partner for India's security, including for adding strategic bulk to its 'Look East' policy. Japan's high-tech arms capability makes it an ideal partner for import-dependent India to build a domestic weapons-production base.
Abe, as part of his Asian stra-tegy of 'proactive pacifism' has pushed for close, enduring collaboration with India, traditionally respected in Japan as Tenjiku, or the heavenly country of Buddhism. If there is any potential pitfall to the India-Japan partnership, it is their messy domestic politics.
Through deep strategic ties, Japan and India — as Asia's natural-born allies — must lead the effort to build freedom, prosperity and stability in Asia. They have a central role to play in ensuring Asian power equilibrium and safeguarding vital sea lanes in the Indo-Pacific region, now the global trade and energy-supply hub. The transformative India-Japan entente promises to positively influence Asia's power dynamics and strategic future.
Counterweight to China
The chief guest for the Republic Day parade on January 26 will be a man that few Indians are familiar with. But Japan's dynamic newly re-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been shaking things up in Asia and, as an ardent admirer of India, is set to take Indo-Japanese relations to a new level. India would be reluctant to join any alliance that Abe might wish but Japanis poised to become India's most important economic and strategic partner.
From building high-speed railway lines to investing billions of dollars in infrastructure and high-tech manufacturing, Japan is set to be a key partner in India's modernisation. Arms sales, military cooperation and joint military exercises could also enhance India's strategic heft in dealing with China.
The blossoming of the Indo-Japanese friendship is remarkable. India's former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh summed up India's friendly but distant relations for the first 50 years after Independence as, "Indira, the elephant in the Tokyo zoo, had far more coverage in Japanese newspapers than Indira, the prime minister of India."
That benign neglect ended with India's emergence as a nuclear power and growing challenge from China to the US-Japanese alliance. WithGeorge W Bush ready to end India's nuclear pariah status in order to balance Chinese power, Japan's anger about India's nuclear test also cooled. A succession of high-level visits followed, the most notable of which was Abe's first state visit in August 2007 when he addressed Parliament and called for a strategic global partnership in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. That year India and Japan took part in their first joint naval exercise with the US in the Pacific and Bay of Bengal.
In the intervening years, concerns about China in both New Delhi and Tokyo have grown, as Chinese and Japanese vessels have come into confrontation near the contested islands that Japan calls Senkakus and China Diaoyu. It is against this backdrop that the Japanese defence minister recently visited India to propose extensive military cooperation. India can expect Abe to press for intensified cooperation to ensure the security and navigability of vital sea lanes through South China Sea and Indian Ocean. Japan has offered to sell India (the first country to be offered) its state-of-the-art amphibious aircraft US-2 and other hardware.
As commercial relations with China sour, Japanese businesses would likely consider moving some of their investments to another large market like India. And India has the appetite for the types of infrastructure and manufacturing projects at which Japan excels. Tokyo has already promised $92 billion towards construction of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and is expected to announce the launch of the Bangalore-Chennai high-speed railway. Japan's lead in building smart grids, generating energy from waste and storage solutions could likewise create new opportunities for savvy Indian companies.
Of course, this prospective love-fest would need to be moderated by broader concerns. India may not feel as strongly about Abe's revisionist view about Japan's role in World War II as other Asian countries, which are outraged by his recent visit to the Yasukuni shrine honouring Japanese war criminals and politicians' attempt to deny wartime atrocities. External affairs minister Salman Khurshid had this reality in mind when he recently told a member of Japan's ruling coalition that it is best for Japan to learn from history and move on.
As Japan would undoubtedly push India to align more closely against China, Indian leaders would do well to also remember what another Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, said during his 2005 visit to India. Indo-Japanese relations will become more and more important strategically. "But at the same time, it is important to have friendly Sino-Japanese ties."
Strengthening cooperation with Japan is not to provoke China but to signal India has other options if China does not reciprocate its friendly gesture. The sight of Abe cheering on Republic Day celebrations should provide Beijing with a good visual reminder of this lesson.
India and Japan must expand economic and security cooperation
With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as the chief guest at the upcoming 65th Republic Day celebrations, New Delhi and Tokyo have a historic opportunity to take bilateral ties to the next level. In fact, global circumstances over the last few years have brought India and Japan closer. This culminated in the recent landmark visit of the Japanese Emperor and Empress to India, signalling a watershed moment in the two-way relationship. Both countries share significant complementarities that can entice meaningful cooperation in sectors ranging from manufacturing and IT to defence and education.
There's no denying that much of the recent bonhomie between New Delhi and Tokyo can be primarily attributed to two factors — Abe's return as Japanese PM and the rise of an assertive China, as evidenced by its strident position on territorial disputes with countries along its borders. Abe, a known friend of New Delhi, has chosen to adopt a robust approach to counter Beijing's assertiveness. This in turn means that capital-rich Japan is on the lookout for markets other than China. And an infrastructure-hungry India with a young population is perfectly poised to leverage Japanese investments. In fact, New Delhi should use Abe's visit to push big-ticket infrastructure projects akin to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor that could attract Japanese investors.
On the security front, both sides have already decided to expand cooperation in maritime security, counter terrorism and anti-piracy operations. And with Japan relaxing its 1967 ban on defence exports, India becomes a potential buyer. The strategic partnership between the two countries should become an important pole of India's foreign policy. As it is, the momentum behind New Delhi's Look East policy starts ebbing beyond the Asean nations. With countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan looking for greater regional cooperation and new partners, India must make the most of circumstances.
Not so natural allies
The star attraction in the Indian pavilion at the Osaka World Expo 1970 was a white tiger. There were, of course, handicrafts and Darjeeling tea. The Japanese politely praised the wonders of India, recalled Buddhist bonds, reminisced over Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Judge Radha Binod Pal, who defended the Japanese after the war and earned a monument for himself in the Yasukuni shrine, talked of Asian solidarity and moved on.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had just visited Japan a few months earlier and relations appeared cordial. Agreements to continue the modest yen credit for projects were signed. Some Japanese wanted the ashes kept at the Rinkoji temple, believed to be of Bose, to be returned to India. Indira Gandhi promised to look into it, knowing well the reaction among people in West Bengal if the ashes of a man they still believed alive were to be brought there.
India and Japan were never indifferent to each other. But both had had different preoccupations. In the 1970s, even while Japan was basking in its fame as the master manufacturer of the world, it was embarrassed by the ceremonial suicide of its young poet, Yukio Mishima, exhorting Japan to resume a militaristic posture. Ichiro Kawasaki, a diplomat, unmasked Japanese weaknesses and asserted that without a huge land mass, sizeable population and abundant resources, Japan would never be a significant world power. Japan had outsourced its foreign policy to the US. India, a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, was a nuisance to US cold warriors, who wanted to contain the Soviet menace. Japan shared that sentiment.
Moreover, India’s defiance of the NPT was unfolding and Japan, sitting in the shade of an American nuclear umbrella, looked askance at Indian nuclear policy. The closed Indian economy had no great attraction for the export-hungry Japanese. The period of benign neglect stretched on for years.
Now that the rain has started, it is pouring. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paid a successful visit to Tokyo in 2013, with expectations of an early agreement on nuclear cooperation. Though the agreement was not signed, the machinery for strategic cooperation was put in place. A rare visit by the emperor and empress of Japan followed and the Japanese prime minister squeezed in a visit to India to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade. The comfort level in relations has reached such proportions that Japan is prepared to begin negotiations for the sale of sea planes, which it has never sold.
China is the unwitting cupid that has brought about the India-Japan honeymoon. Japan is open about its strategy of befriending India with an eye on China, while India remains the bashful bride. Prime Minister Abe wrote in his book, Towards a Beautiful Country (2007), that India-Japan relations would overtake Japan-US and Japan-China relations in a decade. India is right in asserting that it had never been unwilling to cultivate Japan. Strategic autonomy remains in place even in the face of Chinese provocations. Similarities between Arunachal Pradesh and the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands are the unspoken narrative beneath the configuration.
India does not seem to doubt Japanese motivations in pursuing a friendship offensive with India, or its logic. The weakening of the US’s global influence and China’s increased assertiveness seem to dictate an intensification of the Japan-India interaction. But Japan’s doggedness in pursuing national objectives and its ruthlessness in taking tough positions should not be forgotten. Its stiff position on non-proliferation is one example. The other example is the long history of our partnership with Japan in seeking reform of the United Nations Security Council. Japan has been a comrade in arms in that struggle from 1979, when India sought to expand the non-permanent membership of the UNSC. But whenever there was a likelihood of Japan getting an entry by itself or with Germany, it abandoned the partnership with India, in pursuit of its own agenda. When South Korea snatched the South Asian slot for membership of the UNSC by striking a deal with Sri Lanka in 1995 and India sought to contest the East Asian slot in 1996, Japan was adamant to the extent of being hostile in its contest with us. It would not even consider the various formulas we advanced and chose to fight a bitter election.
Japan and India look like natural allies today, but today’s alliance was not brought about by tradition or culture. The propitious configuration of stars that guide international relations had more to do with it. Trust and confidence may develop to prolong the productive alliance, but what will prevail is self-interest, which Japan is quick to grasp and act on with vigour.
Crisis is opportunity: With China growing assertive, New Delhi must make the most of Japanese royal visit
Crisis is opportunity: With China growing assertive, New Delhi must make the most of Japanese royal visit
In a rare visit abroad, Japan's emperor and empress arrive in Delhi tomorrow for a six-day visit to India. Their visit to China in 1992 heralded a sharp upswing in Japan's trade and investment ties with China. Subsequent Japanese investment was to a large extent responsible for building China's industrial base and turning it into the world's factory. With China now aggressively asserting its territorial claims in the East China Sea and the Japan-China relationship souring rapidly, Tokyo is feeling the need to hedge its bets in Asia. This is an opportunity New Delhi must not lose. It must persuade Tokyo to place some of its eggs in India's basket.
Ever since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - widely known as a friend of India - came to power last year, New Delhi-Tokyo relationshave received a fresh fillip. While India needs Japanese investments for infrastructure development, Japan needs India as part of its group of friends to offset China. Complementarities between India's and Japan's economies are enormous. Japan has capital and technology but is an ageing society. India is reaping a demographic dividend and does not lack for labour or for land that can be industrially developed.
Japanese strength in miniature hardware is unrivalled, India is strong in software and services. Mostly English-speaking countries outsource IT sector work to India, while the Japanese IT sector outsources mostly to China. That could change in India's favour if both countries make a concerted attempt. Indeed, New Delhi must make a strong pitch thatintellectual property rights are protected better in India than China, which is emerging as a strategic rival of Japan.
Meanwhile, if Japanese aid and expertise can be solicited for building the Delhi-Mumbai and other industrial corridors being planned in India, there will be a win-win situation for both countries as Japanese companies could subsequently set up manufacturing units there. Such economic cooperation, for which the India-Japan Comprehensive Agreement signed two years back provides the framework, can become the catalyst for India's rise. There is significant scope for defence co-operation as well, where the two sides work together on maritime security and perhaps eventually joint development and manufacture of weapons systems. New Delhi would do well to roll out the red carpet for Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko when they come. And place some of its strategic eggs in Tokyo's basket as well.
Obama vows to defend Japan
U.S. President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday to defend Japan if China attacks over a tense territorial dispute, but also urged Beijing to help stop North Korea from forging ahead with its “dangerous” nuclear programme.
Mr. Obama described as “critically important” China’s role in keeping its wayward ally in check after South Korea said heightened activity at the North’s main nuclear test site could point to an imminent test — its fourth.
“China’s participation in pushing the DPRK (North Korea) in a different direction is critically important,” the president told a joint press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“It is the most destabilising, dangerous situation in all of the Asia-Pacific region.”
Despite his call for China’s help, Mr. Obama also underlined U.S. support for Japan, saying that islands at the centre of its bitter territorial dispute with Beijing are covered by a defence treaty that would oblige Washington to act if they were attacked.
Relations between Tokyo and Beijing are at their lowest point for years. Some observers warn they might come to blows over the islands, where ships from both sides lurk to press claims for ownership.
Mr. Abe’s position on historical issues also annoys the Chinese, who accuse him of playing down Japanese atrocities.
They are particularly upset by visits he and his cabinet ministers have paid to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours war criminals among other fallen warriors.
In another sign of history influencing the present, China on Thursday said it had released a Japanese ship seized after its owner paid $28 million compensation in a business dispute dating to Japan’s occupation of swathes of the country in the 1930s.
Tokyo warned earlier this week that the seizure could have a chilling effect on the huge trade relationship between China and Japan.
Meanwhile, progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — a proposed 12-nation free trade bloc — was stalled.
Mr. Obama said the two sides had still yet to find common ground, with high tariffs on Japanese agricultural products among the key sticking points.
“Now is the time for bold steps,” he said. — AFP
| India and Japan to Strengthen their Cooperation in the Shipping Sector. | ||
| India and Japan proposes to strengthen their cooperation in the shipping sector. In this connection a delegation under the leadership of Union Minister of Shipping Shri G.K. Vasan, is visiting Japan from today till the 12th this month on an invitation from Mr. Akihiro Ohta, the Hon’ble Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Government of Japan. The visiting delegation will have discussions with the Japanese Government for better coordination between two countries and to further enable various Japanese companies to utilize facilities at Indian Ports, more particular of Ennore and Chennai Ports. Shri Vasan will also lead discussions for obtaining funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Outer Harbour project of VOC Port, Thuthikoodi. The Government of Japan had earlier shown interest in developing Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor as part of Penninsular Region Industrial Development corridor (PRIDe) of India. Ennore Port has been identified as one of the main logistic hub in this industrial corridor development. JICA has already commenced a study for the purpose. The visiting Indian delegation consists of Secretary (Shipping) Shri Vishwapati Trivedi, CMD of Ennore Port Ltd., Shri M.A. Bhaskarachar, and other officials of the Shipping Ministry. The delegation besides meeting the political leaders, government officials and business leaders during their visit, would be visiting the Port of Yokohama and Port of Nagoya to see the port operations and the latest technologies being utilized in these two Ports. Expertise of Japanese in port operations, ship recycling and shipbuilding are expected to be utilized by the Indian ports and shipyards in future. Japanese automobile manufacturing companies like Toyota, Mitsubushi, Isuzu, Nissan and Toshiba have been using Chennai Port for importing automobile components through containers for their factories located in Chennai. The Japanese Company M/s Metal One (Mitshubishi group) is importing steel coils used for automobile through Chennai Port in the break bulk form. Around 240 Japanese companies have developed businesses in and around Chennai in the last decade. Various Japanese Companies have also been evincing a lot of interest in enhancing their use of the Ennore Port. At present, Nissan Motors India and Toyota are the major Japanese Companies using the Ennore Port facilities for their export. M/s Nissan Motors has exported about 3 lakhs cars from Ennore Port. Toyota has so far exported 42,000 cars from the Port.
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| India and Japan Hold Defence Talks | ||
| Defence Minister of Japan, Itsunori Onodera, is on a visit to India from 5-8 January 2014 as a follow up to the India-Japan Defence Ministerial Meeting held in November 2011. The two Ministers held a Defence Ministerial meeting on 6 January 2014. At the meeting, the two Ministers extensively and frankly exchanged ideas regarding regional and global security challenges, as well as bilateral defence cooperation and exchanges between India and Japan. They shared views on issues relating to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region. Minister Onodera briefed on Japan`s National Security Strategy and the National Defence Program Guidelines, which were adopted in December 2013. The Defence Minister of India Shri AK Antony appreciated the detailed briefing. The two Ministers appreciated the progress on India-Japan bilateral defence cooperation and exchanges that had been achieved in a variety of fields and at various levels, including the holding of the third Defence Policy Dialogue which was decided during the 2011 Defence Ministerial meeting, the second "2 plus 2" dialogue and the second bilateral training between the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force and the Indian Navy which was held from 19-22 December, 2013. The two Ministers also shared views on the necessity to conduct high- level and working-level regular consultations and exchanges, deepening Services exchanges and education/academic research exchanges and making other efforts, in order to further strengthen mutual trust and mutual understanding. They also decided to strengthen India-Japan defence consultation and cooperation, including those related to maritime security to further consolidate and strengthen the Strategic and Global Partnership between Japan and India. At the meeting, the two Ministers shared views to promote defence cooperation and exchanges and to conduct major cooperation and exchanges as follows: • Continue to carry out high-level mutual visits on annual basis. The Defence Minister of India will visit Japan in 2014; • Hold the third "2 plus 2" dialogue and the fourth Defence Policy Dialogue (Administrative Vice-Minister/Secretary of Defence level) in Delhi in 2014; • Promote exchanges on UN Peacekeeping Operations between Japan Peacekeeping Training and Research Centre, Joint Staff College (JPC), Central Readiness Force of Japan Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF) and Centre for UN Peacekeeping (CUNPK) of the Indian Army; • Conduct bilateral exercises between Japan Maritime Self- Defence Force and Indian Navy on a regular basis. In 2014, the Indian Navy will visit Japan to conduct joint exercises; • Conduct Expert exchanges in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief and Counter Terrorism between both Indian Army and Japan Ground Self Defence Force (JGSDF); and • Continue to conduct staff exchanges and discuss possibility of conducting staff talks between Japan Air Self-Defence Force and Indian Air Force and professional exchanges of test-pilots, professional exchanges in the field of flight safety and between their transport squadrons. Minister Onodera expressed gratitude to Minister AK Antony for the heartfelt welcome and hospitality extended to him during his visit to India.
Japan Cabinet approves ‘collective self- defence’
Japan on Tuesday loosened the bonds on its powerful military, proclaiming the right to go into battle in defence of allies, in a highly controversial shift in the nation’s pacifist stance.
After months of political horse-trading, conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his Cabinet had formally endorsed a reinterpretation of rules that have banned the use of armed force except in very narrowly-defined circumstances.
Mr. Abe has faced down widespread public opposition to the move, which climaxed at the weekend when a middle-aged man attempted suicide by setting himself on fire.
While the move to allow so-called “collective self-defence” needs parliamentary approval, the control of both chambers that Mr. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party enjoys renders this a formality.
Mr. Abe had originally planned to change Article 9 of the Constitution, which renounces “the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes”. But unable to muster the two-thirds majority he needed in both houses and unlikely to get an endorsement from the public in the required referendum, he changed tack, using what opponents say is sleight of hand to alter what the clause means.
Under the new definition, Japanese troops will be able to come to the aid of allies — primarily the U.S. — if they come under attack from a common enemy, even if Japan is not the object of the attack.
Japan’s defence policy shift slammed
China has slammed the move by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government to reinterpret the country’s Pacifist Constitution to enable a wider role for the Japanese military overseas, terming the decision “a brutal violation” of the spirit of the post-Second World War Constitution.
Mr. Abe’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a reinterpretation of the post-war imposed Pacifist Constitution that severely limited the use of the Japanese military, even when on overseas peacekeeping missions. The reinterpretation now allows for “collective self-defence” that would permit Japan to come to the aid of its allies overseas.
That the move came amid the most heightened tensions between China and Japan in many years over disputed East China Sea islands and questions over war-time history has prompted analysts in Beijing to see the reinterpretation as being directed at China.
“The new policy raises doubts about Japan’s approach to peaceful development. We urge Japan to sincerely respect the rightful concerns of neighbouring Asian countries, diligently solve any related issues, and not affect China’s rights and the stability of the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
South Korea, which is also embroiled in renewed disputes with Japan over wartime history — the question of Japanese occupation remains a sensitive issue in both China and South Korea — called on Tokyo to be mindful of regional peace and stability.
On Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to South Korea on a visit seen as rare by Beijing observers as he will not be visiting any other country on his tour.
Their recent disputes with Japan are also likely to figure during the visit, with the recently warming of ties between the two countries coinciding with their spats with Japan.
This week, South Korean President Park Geun-hye hit out at Tokyo for taking a “retrogressive” attitude on the question of wartime atrocities.
Qu Xing, the head of the Foreign Ministry-affiliated China Institute for International Studies, said on Wednesday both countries were “pressing Japan to correctly understand its historical issues and keep on high alert against its right-leaning trail”.
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