Newsletter No. 1436
Research-Review
August 16, 2009

 

BOOK REVIEW: PENN ON “JAPAN’S SILK ROAD DIPLOMACY”

An edited volume on Japan’s relations with Central Asia has recently been produced with a list of contributors that include several Shingetsu Members, including two of the three lead editors. A few months ago I received a complimentary copy from Christopher Len, and I have since had the opportunity to read and digest the material. Here are the basics:

Japan's Silk Road Diplomacy: Paving the Road Ahead
Edited by Christopher Len, Tomohiko Uyama, and Tetsuya Hirose
Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Silk Road Studies Program
December 2008
Paperback, 206 Pages

Review by Michael Penn

This book collects a number of papers presented at a workshop in Tokyo on September 22, 2007 (see Shingetsu Newsletter No. 730). I attended the workshop myself, but the organizers asked me not to report about the nature of the papers because they had in mind the publication of this volume all along. Now it is available to everyone as a paperback book. Also, I have very recently been informed that Tomohiko Uyama has taken the lead in producing a Japanese-language version of the book as follows:

Nihon no Chuo Ajia Gaiko
Hokkaido Daigaku Shuppankai
March 2009

I have been told that the Japanese-language version is more-or-less identical to the English version excepting only that a different introduction targets the book toward a Japanese audience. Here I am reviewing the English-language edition.

There are ten chapters in the book, each by a different author. The book reads quickly, however, and there are no major problems with editing or other technical issues. Here I briefly summarize each chapter:

Akio Kawato, “What is Japan Up To in Central Asia?”

Akio Kawato (Shingetsu Member No. 165) was the Japanese ambassador to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, now retired from MOFA. This chapter is therefore based in significant part on his personal understanding as a Japanese policymaker. Kawato profiles the development of Tokyo’s policies toward independent Central Asia from 1991 to the present, with “Central Asia Plus Japan” being perhaps the most significant Japanese initiative. Kawato observes that the “Great Game” perspective may be misleading because all of the parties interested in Central Asia have a common interest in its stability and the region is open to participation from many quarters.

Christopher Len, “Understanding Japan’s Central Asia Engagement”

Christopher Len (Shingetsu Member No. 82) takes a similar approach to that of Akio Kawato, except that he attempts categorize more clearly the different stages of Japan’s diplomatic engagement with Central Asia. Shingetsu Members with a longer memory may recall Len’s first introduction in Shingetsu Newsletter No. 165, which profiled a paper that is similar to this chapter of the new book. Len’s overarching argument is that Japan’s role in Central Asia is mostly benign because its objective is to keep the region stable and open. The geographical distance of Japan makes any concept of a Japanese “sphere of influence” in the region untenable. As a result, we should not be surprised that some Central Asian governments have welcomed an enhanced Japanese role.

Takeshi Yuasa, “Consolidating ‘Value-Oriented’ Diplomacy towards Eurasia?”

Takeshi Yuasa’s chapter takes a closer look at the “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” initiative championed by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and then-Foreign Minister Taro Aso in 2006-2007. Yuasa points out that this was an atypical Japanese diplomatic initiative that highlighted “universal values” such as democracy and human rights. Yuasa ties this initiative to the Abe administration’s desire to tighten links with NATO as well as “likeminded states” such as the United States, Australia, and India. By 2008, however, with electoral defeats and changing circumstances, the “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” initiative was fading away. Yuasa feels, however, that a Japanese foreign policy based on “universal values” is likely to reappear.

Akihiro Iwashita, “Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Beyond Power Games”

Akihiro Iwashita examines the role of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Central Asia, broadly considering how this organization should be understood and what stance the Japanese government might take toward it. Iwashita sees the SCO in a complex light with tendencies pulling it in several directions at once. He is concerned that it may become focused on excluding US power from Central Asia, but doesn’t see such a development as inevitable. Iwashita’s main point seems to be that the SCO should be engaged in a dialogue at many levels, and this is the best guarantee that its positive aspects will come to the fore.

Erica Marat, “Kyrgyzstan: Japan’s Prime Partner in Central Asia?”

Erica Marat (Shingetsu Member No. 166) sees the role of Japan-Kyrgyzstan relations as being of particular importance in driving the “Central Asia Plus Japan” dialogue and other features of Japan’s policies in the region. She argues that Kyrgyzstan has been more open to outside influences than the other post-Soviet states in Central Asia and this has provided an opportunity for a reasonably strong connection with Japan. She observes, like several other contributors to the volume, that one of the keys to Japanese “success” in Central Asia is that Tokyo rarely makes a serious issue out of democratization and human rights issues. Marat is optimistic that there is still room for strong growth in Japan-Kyrgyzstan relations.

Tomohiko Uyama, “Japan’s Diplomacy in the Context of Asia and US-Japan Relations”

Tomohiko Uyama reviews the history of Japanese diplomacy as it has long been caught between trends arguing for alliance with the West and other trends arguing for some form of Pan-Asianism. He regrets that there is no particular analytical framework that has been developed to understand Japan’s relations with Central Asia. He then reviews developments in post-1991 policy through the lens of Japanese Asianism. Finally, he offers his own proposal for “Diplomacy Based on Open-minded Asianism.” The basic notion is that the new Asianism should not be anti-Western in spirit, but rather retain its openness.

Timur Dadabaev, “Models of Cooperation in Central Asia and Japan’s Engagements”

Timur Dadabaev’s chapter is somewhat more theoretical than some of the others, focusing as he does on the concept of functionalism. He reviews various multilateral organizations in Central Asia such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the SCO. When he turns to Japan, he suggests that Central Asian leaders welcome Japan’s engagement, but that the full potential of this connection is still far from being met. Dadabaev points specifically to examples in which Japanese aid projects are not being implemented effectively. Essentially, he thinks that if Japan does things in Central Asia that are of real value, then Japan’s role will become much more important for all parties.

Niklas Swanstrom, “Economic Cooperation and Conflict Management: Northeast Asian Actors”

Niklas Swanstrom offers an article which is subtly more pessimistic than most of the others. He argues that the current multilateral organizations in Central Asia are actually quite weak and that there is a lot of suspicion and distrust among the Central Asian states themselves. He sees the development of Russian and Chinese power as playing the key role in conflict management in the future, but feels that Japan “has an important role to play in balancing Russia and China, and in guiding the Central Asian economies closer towards greater openness.”

Kuniko Shimao, “Japan’s Energy Strategy towards West and Central Asia”

Kuniko Shimao addresses the issue of oil and its importance for Japan. In this chapter, she looks at the issue from a macro perspective, viewing Japan’s oil strategy as a whole. This means that perhaps more than half of her chapter deals with West Asia more than Central Asia. Implicitly, she seems to view the challenges of Central Asia to be an extension of the challenges of West Asia.

Tetsuya Hirose, “The Perspective of a Working-Level Policy Maker”

Tetsuya Hirose (Shingetsu Member No. 155) was an ambassador to Azerbaijan as well as the first chief of the Newly Independent States (NIS) section of MOFA. It was therefore quite natural that he should be one of the editors of this volume as well as the contributor of the final chapter. His contribution gives an important insider’s view of the initial development of Japan’s Central Asian strategies and what MOFA attempted to achieve in the 1990s. He also reviews many of the other papers in the book. He hopes that Japan will establish a “consultation mechanism” with Central Asia making full use of resources both inside and outside the Japanese government.

Paving the Road Ahead

The subtitle of this volume is “Paving the Road Ahead.” Presumably, they were referring primarily to the road ahead for Japan’s relations with Central Asia. However, this description is also useful to describe the merits of this book as well. Its strongest contribution is that it points the way forward for future scholarship in this field.

The book has some weaknesses: Many of the ten authors are treading over much the same ground and so it tends to be repetitive; some of the analysis is quite superficial; there are too many generalizations and not enough references to specific facts and events; and, like all such edited volumes, there are some problems of unity and style.

Still, when one considers the poor state of scholarship on Japan’s relations with contemporary Central Asia in general, we can understand that this book is a significant step forward. Those wishing to write about this topic in the future would be wise to read this book carefully. There are plenty of ideas and nuggets of information to enrich our understanding.

In the future, we might hope that someone writes a monograph on this topic which digs deeper into the issues and perhaps incorporates more concrete observations from Central Asian perspectives. This would be a mighty big project, however, and it remains to be seen if it will ever be done effectively. In the meantime, Japan’s Silk Road Diplomacy: Paving the Road Ahead is likely to stand as the standard work for some years to come.