May 19, 2005
Minister Junichi Ihara
Economic Minister
Embassy of Japan, Washington, D.C.
Topic: U.S.-Japan Economic Relations
and Community Building in East-Asia.
The Economic Minister of
the Japan Embassy in Washington, D.C., Junichi
Ihara, offered a unique and frank assessment on the
evolution of the Japan-U.S. economic relations
between the early 90’s to the present time. He also
spent time to inform our ELF members on how the
Japanese policy is coping with the changing
situation in East Asia, especially with the dangers
inherent in the rise of China’s military and
economic power.
The Minister admitted
that Japan misjudged its economic power
infrastructure. As he said, Japan recognized
belatedly in the1990s that his country was far below
their global economic partners. As an example, he
mentioned that Japan’s banking system and its
mechanism in business development were inferior to
the United States. Moreover, Japan was incapable of
making a meaningful human contribution to
international crisis. Here, he mentioned that Japan
gave 13 million dollars to Kuwait’s reconstruction,
but did not send troops to participate in the Gulf
War. Also, Japan was promoting regional cooperation
in East Asia without the United States. Not
surprisingly, at that time, he said that the United
States did not consider Japan a credible partner.
Today, however, Japan has
restructured its economic structure, as well as its
corporate culture. Japanese manufactures have
deployed aggressive overseas investments. For
example, today, Japanese investments in the United
States exceed Japanese exports to America. On the
political front, Japan now is sending civil defense
forces overseas for peacekeeping efforts and natural
disaster relief. Today, Japan is fighting
international terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq
alongside the American forces.
The Minister concluded his
very well-received briefing with the remark, “Today,
the U.S.-Japan alliance is strong and beneficial for
us and for the United States.”
