Last Friday, recently elected Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda clearly stated that the country would open its doors to the international community-by trying to help and contribute in order to achieve a "better future for the world"- as much as it would work to paliate the awful consequences of the recent situation involving the Fukushima power plant and the tsunami.
Among all the things he promised in the U.N. General Assembly opening session, he said he would invest all the means possible in order to ease the development of the new recognized state of South Sudan and also facilitate the way to democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. In order to do so, he offered a $1 billion loan to start the procedures. He mentioned he would strengthen the relations with China as well, as both countries need to get along well and forget hursh feelings from the past.
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After elections were held, and with huge effort and a competitive campaign, Noda has made its way through the Japanese government to the top. His administration, focused on the economic field, and his tight relationship with the U.S. in order to obtain a security alliance, have made of him a popular character in the country. However, as a new Prime Minister, he is trying to show to both Japan's population and the rest of the international community that he is ready to be the "change", but the truth is that on the one hand the state has been focusing a lot on its domestic policies for a long time and, on the other hand, it has established a foreign policy characterised by mere pragmatic and pacific behaviors since the end of WWII and only acquiring a more internationally committed perspective in the past twenty years. So we will have to wait and see if his promises are for real and if he is willing to be the real change for the country.
What do you guys think? Is Japan ready to do everything it takes in order to be recognised as the power it actually is? or is it most likely to maintain its past policies and remain in a second place while the rest of the world keeps on walking? I think Japanese won't be able to consolidate back their former strong position in the international framework for a long time, because even though they are the third largest economy in the world, they do need to recover from the quake & tsunami accident and rethink some of their policies regarding issues of extreme importance such as energy or demographics...
頑張ってNodaさま！！(good luck Mr.Noda)...you're going to need it.
Link: http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/noda-says-japan-will-not-turn-inward-after-disaster
-Japan Today News, 24 September 2011.
I think it's admiring that after all Japan has had to go through, it's still one of the countries that register growing values in their GDP. This shows the true character of a nation that with all the challenges that Japan is willing to take over, will serve as a catalyst in the future for the relations with China and the Asian tigers.
ReplyDeleteI think Japan is a country that should be between the worlds main powers. I think Japan has to make an effort in getting along with China because its a very important emerging power and I think Noda knows that and he his going to dedicate a big part of his foreign policy to the relations with Japan
ReplyDeleteAs far as I can see, Noda is trying to portrait the "change" image Obama tried to pull off at first, but as you have stated, it will be really difficult for Japan (at least for now) to open to the rest of the world, when they first have to deal with the japanese state. However, it seems interesting to me that they are interested in increasing the bond with China, which could lead to interesting results for both economies.
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