At the meeting of 23 world leaders at the World
Commission on Environment and Development in London on
24 April 1992, Dr. Saburo Okita, the former Japanese
Foreign Minister declared that Japan would take over
leadership in protecting the environment and aiding
world development if President Bush failed to meet that
responsibility. He added:
'We are not trying to overtake on military
leadership - the US have that and will keep it - but
if they do not wish to take on other
responsibilities, we have agreed to do so.''
The aggressive stance taken by Japan on development
aid and on the environment did not come as a surprise
to informed Japan watchers. The fact is that Japan is
rapidly emerging as the world's dominant economic
power. Japanese who are 2.6% of the world's population
and who live on 0.1% of its inhabitable area, produce
10% of world economic production.
Japanese economic success has also meant increasing
economic muscle outside the country. Japan has
increasingly become the lender and donor of first
resort. Its financial institutions are now responsible
for a third of all international credit. A single
Japanese company, Nomura, was responsible for financing
a third of the huge US national debt. Japanese overseas
aid in 1989 totalled 9 billion US$ compared to US aid
of a mere 7.7 billion US$. As a percentage of GNP,
Japan's aid budget was more than double that of the US.
That was in 1989 and Japan has aggressively increased
its aid programme year by year.
Japan is the principal aid donor and trading partner
throughout the Asian-Pacific third world. For instance,
Japan is Burma's largest donor, accounting for 80% of
all official government aid to the military regime.
In 1990, Japan
was the largest single aid donor to Sri Lanka,
accounting for around 35% of the total grant. More
significantly, the Japanese contribution was more than
four times that made by any other single country. The
other substantial contributions, amounting to about 20%
each, came from the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank.
Aid means big business for Japan. Japanese Overseas
Develop-ment Assistance (ODA) effectively re cycles yen
collected as taxes back to Japanese companies. Unlike
other donor countries Japan has no agency with overall
responsibility for aid. ODA decision making is spread
across the Foreign Ministry, the Finance Ministry and
the powerful Ministry of International Trade and
Industry. This makes it easier for individual corporate
clients to have access to ODA funds.
Not unnaturally Japan's profile in the UN has gone
up several notches in recent times. On a recent visit
to Japan, US Secretary of State James A.Baker warned
Japan against relying on 'cheque book diplomacy' to
protect its narrow interests. More recently, it appears
that Japan has joined forces with the US on nuclear non
proliferation and warned India of 'an aid cut off if
India does not tame its nuclear ambitions'.
Early this year, it was reported that a key Japanese
official in Colombo had asked the Sri Lanka government
to give coverage to opposition parties in the state
owned Rupavahini television. It was not without
significance that Rupavahini itself was an outright
gift from Japan. The statement of the same official
that the privately owned Sri Lanka Island newspaper was
the only independent newspaper in Sri Lanka was seen as
a clear intrusion in local politics.
But, be that as it may, Japan is also seen as
providing some leverage for Third World governments,
such as Sri Lanka, when dealing with Euro-American
pressures. An often expressed view is that 'Asians feel
more comfortable with the Japanese and are hanging
their hopes on them because they are not such sticklers
for rules and laws.' The Japanese have tried to play
this card to their best advantage - portraying
themselves as an alternative to white global
domination.
Coupled with its aid programme, the other major
thrust of Japan's economic expansion is linked to its
pollution abatement technologies. For instance, a major
Japanese construction company is planning a second
Panama Canal, the Kra Isthmus Canal to the Gulf of
Thailand, a new Silk Road (a super highway across Asia
to Europe), a bridge across the Straits of Gibraltar, a
huge Central African Lake, and a global network of
power stations. According to the promoters, these
projects will not only save the earth but stimulate
local economies.
Technological solutions to the ecological calamity
are the centre piece of Japanese industrial and
corporate policy. Not surprisingly, Japan which has
built its prosperity on finding new 'techno fixes' ,
sees itself as taking a lead role in the ultimate
'techno fix' - how to handle pollution and protect the
environment. Japanese business believes that these will
be profitable areas for the growth industries of the
coming decades.
The statement in London on April 24, focusing as it
did, on aid and ecology, marked out the area for
Japanese leadership: ex Foreign Minister Dr.Saburo
Okita, almost patronisingly, left the 'military
leadership' to the US. After all, it is money which
makes the world go round.
