Japan-China Relations and the World
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honour and privilege for me to deliver my thoughts on such an important issue as Japan-China relations to such a distinguished audience of the Japan Society of Hong Kong in such an auspicious occasion of its 45th Anniversary. My deepest thanks, therefore, go to today's host and other staff who have given me this precious opportunity.
It was in January 1972 that I came to Hong Kong for the first time. Two years previously, in 1970, I had begun my Chinese studies in Taiwan, for at that time Japan maintained official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. As a graduation tour, I had planned to travel round Southeast Asia, with the aim of getting more acquainted with Asia, and finish up in Hong Kong to update my knowledge of mainland China; all information about Communist China was prohibited in Taiwan in those days. I was thus part of the so-called “China School” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan of my generation, and we thought we were studying Chinese so that we could deal with mainland China some day. We never expected that historical moment would come so soon.
My tour went smoothly to begin with, as I travelled from Taipei to Bangkok, to Kuala Lumpur, then to Singapore. But my original schedule to fly from there to Saigon was suddenly cancelled because of a mechanical problem on the aircraft I was due to fly on. In the hope that I might be able to visit Saigon in the not too distant future, I decided to skip it and fly directly to Hong Kong. I didn't have the slightest premonition that Saigon would fall in 1975. Even now, my plan to visit Vietnam and what is now Ho Chi Min City has not been realised.
Anyway, after these twists and turns, I finally arrived in Hong Kong. For me, Hong Kong was a beautiful, well developed modern city, still a world where “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing”. I was fascinated by it.
Even such a brief and personal description of a few years of history shows us that dramatic historical events can take place in a short period of time and how closely events can be interrelated or interact with one another.
The Sino-Soviet break-up as well as the protracted Vietnam War ended the Cold War at least between the US and China and led to their rapprochement. In the same year, 1972, Japan and China finally normalized their diplomatic relationship.
A similar dramatic turnaround happened again in 1989 following the collapse of the Berlin Wall that eventually led to the breakup of the Soviet Union itself. Again, this chain of events totally altered the global geopolitical landscape. The cold war finally came to an end. The entire world community began a search for a new world order or a kind of new regime or framework, a safe harbour in rough seas as it were, and this process still goes on. We have not found the final answer yet, and we will probably not be able to find it for a long time. Perhaps, as some have argued, we will go back to the Middle Ages, in the sense that the world will be divided into empires with disappearing national borders; inside these empires ethnic groups will coexist under overwhelming authority, and the world order will be maintained by co-ordinated relations between the empires.
While the search for a new world order continues, the global economy is undergoing profound transformations. The borderless economy has suddenly surfaced as a consequence of the amazing acceleration in technological innovations. The information age has finally reached every corner of the globe, changing the world economic landscape forever. The World Trade Organisation is the tool for accelerating this process.
At a time when capital, represented in particular by the multinational companies, was ready to reach out to newly emerging economies across the borders of the developed economies, China at long last determined in 1992 to widen and deepen their open-door and reform policy that had started in 1978 but been reversed in 1989. China finally joined the WTO in December 2001, and the volume of international capital inflows into the Chinese market has set new records every year since. The Chinese economy has grown at an average annual rate of around 9% for almost three decades and has even surpassed a growth rate of 10% in recent years. China has now become the “factory of the world”, having attracted almost all of the world's major manufacturers to set up manufacturing there. The Chinese government boasts that all the Forbes 500 companies have now made investments in China.
This hyper-growth of the Chinese economy has brought enormous pressures to bear on the existing economic, social and political structures inside China, and the consequences have been one problem after another that have demanded continuous bold reforms to fix. It is ironic that success creates problems that require another success to overcome. Even so, China will remain an engine of the global economy for the foreseeable future, and the other BRICS economies have also joined that camp recently. The world economic landscape is again starting to change.
It is against this background that in his recent book a Japanese economist, Kazuo Mizuno, has introduced a very interesting observation.
He says that the so-called “modern economy”, which supplanted the feudal economies of the Middle Ages and which has prevailed for the past five to six centuries, has now moved to BRICS mainly through multinational companies.
On the other hand, the developed economies are now entering what is known as the “post-modern economy”, which is something that we do not know yet how to manage. BRICS can continue to develop their economies for as long as their resources – their underdeveloped human resources, domestic markets, natural resources and so on – allow the traditional “modern economy” to function.
Even in Japan, the sectors and companies that have successfully linked up to the BRICS economies can grow, but those who haven't stagnate or even shrink. The sectors in Japanese economy that have been left behind, Mr Mizuno argues, must reform their systems and their way of doing business in order to survive in the “post-modern economy”.
This is a very interesting diagnosis of the current Japanese as well as the world economy.
But whatever the diagnosis, the world's economies are increasingly interrelated and interdependent. The globe is becoming more integrated and much smaller by any standard. This is the reality that any policymaker has to take into account in constructing domestic and foreign policy.
In fact, the global economy, often called the borderless economy, has penetrated national borders and put pressure on each national economy to change as quickly as possible. As a consequence, people living in those economies have been forced to get used to a high speed of change. If you acquire a habit of perpetual change, then you don't have enough time to ponder or reflect.
That actually worries me quite a lot. We need time to stop and think. It is also better for a society to stop and think. In a way, thanks to slowed economic growth in Japan, the Japanese people have now found time to stop and think. They are reflecting on what we have gained and what we have lost and are trying to regain some aspects of our traditional culture and value system.
Ladies and gentlemen,
With this picture of the 21st century and this global conceptual agenda in mind, there are a plenty of reasons for our views why Japan and China should assume the solemn responsibility for the stability, peace and security as well as the prosperity of the world as a whole and Asia in particular. This recognition should be common sense shared by the majority of citizens, but let me go a little bit further and explain why it is so.
First of all, Japan and China are indispensable parts and significant members of the interdependent world community. Therefore, they must bear their share of the global burdens and responsibility accordingly.
Secondly, in that global framework, Asia now seems to attain much more weight in contributing to shaping the world economy and world politics, too. For example, 35 years ago when Japan and China normalized diplomatic relations, East Asia* accounted for only 11% of world GDP, compared to 20 % in 2005. Today, China is ranked as the number 3 economy just after Japan, and India is catching up. Asia's economic weight in the global economy continues to increase, as does its political influence. As the leading economies with political influence in the region, Japan and China must play an appropriate role.
Thirdly, Japan and China account for 76% of Asia*'s entire GDP. The volume of trade between Asian* countries reached 53% of their total trade, which amounts to $ 6 trillion. Of that, trade between Asian countries, 62% is related to either Japan or China or both. Again, these figures prove that Japan and China are leading countries in Asia.
Fourthly, as indicated above, Japan and China retain the political as well as the economic influence necessary for a major power. China not only continues to play a role as a leading political power, embodied by its permanent membership of the UN Security Council as well as having one of the largest armed forces and being a nuclear power, but it is also increasing its influence, enhanced by its rapidly expanding economy which will soon surpass that of Japan.
Japan, on the other hand, will never cease to be a leading economic giant because today's Japan is the result of the Japanese way of life, or of Japan itself, and that Japan will not disappear for a century or so. This Japan is now determined to speak out to defend or further its interests or integrity that it defines itself.
Finally, past experiences show us that if Japan and China collide or confront each other, any initiative or action towards a viable political or economic regime or framework in Asia cannot be developed. A stable, peaceful and prosperous Asia will only materialise if Japan and China succeed in working harmoniously and constructively together. In other words, Japan and China must construct a reliable, predictable and co-operative bilateral relationship based upon long-term and well-defined national interests.
It is against this background and on this recognition that the governments of Japan and China officially declared in the Joint Press Statement issued in October last year their desire to build a mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests, in short a Strategic Mutually Beneficial Relationship.
The declaration acknowledges the solemn responsibility of both countries to world stability, peace and prosperity. It represents the unreserved manifestation of two governments that it is their solemn responsibility to maintain a good relationship as neighbours and develop it to a higher level for the benefit of the whole world.
The direction and intentions of the Strategic Mutually Beneficial Relationship were further clarified in a second Joint Press Statement issued in April this year.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This then raises a serious question: how do Japan and China manage to build a stable, predictable and co-operative bilateral relationship, taking into account the deep-rooted geopolitical rivalry, historical animosity as well as emotional antagonism between Japan and China and between their peoples?
The answer to this fundamental question lies in an understanding of some basic points that will necessarily underpin the newly modulated Japan-China relationship under today's conditions.
Firstly, full recognition and comprehension of our “strategic common interests” is the prerequisite for the new formula for our relationship. Here, “strategic” means the judgment derived from a long-term and wide-ranging perspective. In the economic arena, there is tremendous potential for boosting co-operation and enhancing mutual benefits. Our economies are complementary and mutually supportive, and they both have a common interest in building a world economic system that can secure sustainable economic growth as well as an improved environment.
Prosperity requires that this economic growth is accompanied by peace and stability. Thus, two economies need a peaceful and stable international environment to develop and to create prosperity. In terms of our “strategic common interests”, both countries must seek global peace and security.
Let me stress for you here the fact that Japan and China are much too integrated in the global system and too large to live in isolation from the rest of the world. There is a Chinese proverb that sums it up perfectly: working harmoniously, both can benefit; fighting each other, both can be hurt.
Secondly, Japan and China must find a way to fine-tune their mutual relationship.
As I said at the outset, China is emerging as one of the leading great powers, while Japan will continue to be one of the influential great powers.
If you look back over the history of the world, including the history of East Asia, this modulation of mutual relationships has taken place all the time. What I would like to emphasise here is that the situations we face today are not new in world history. So we must understand that situations that have happened before in history are taking place again and confronting us again today.
The problem is that these situations are in fact quite new for the current generations both in Japan and China, who are inexperienced and thus do not know how to deal with them.
I have some tips that can help us perceive a rival as a partner and modulate our mutual relationship.
To begin with, as I mentioned before, both Japan and China are great nations, so we have to admit that both of us are entitled to a proper status and position in the international arena, including in the economic and political fields.
Both of us have to act properly while recognising our heavy responsibilities.
Both countries must also work hard to produce concrete results from our Strategic Mutually Beneficial Relationship; we then have to show those results to our peoples to convince them that there are many positive returns and great satisfaction to be gained here.
Thirdly, elite support and mass understanding can provide the new way of thinking with the solid roots that will enable the Strategic Mutually Beneficial Relationship to prevail on our soils. In particular, we need mutual understanding at the grass roots level that is based on broad knowledge of the other side.
During my previous assignment in Beijing, I had the opportunity to have a discussion with Chinese scholars majoring in Japanology. I told them I had the strong impression that roughly 70% of the so-called problems between Japan and China were caused by either misunderstanding or ignorance of the other. One Chinese professor who had just retuned from Japan after studying there for 6 years approached me after the session and said, “Miyamoto-san, you are wrong. The percentage is not 70%, it is 80%!”
Ladies and gentlemen,
Now we have arrived at the vital issue of mutual understanding. Mutual understanding is the key to establishing a solid, stable, predictable and co-operative relationship between Japan and China. Without mutual understanding, neither mutual trust nor mutual respect will be possible. What we call mutual understanding is really easy to say but very hard to accomplish. For example, after 35 years of marriage, I still discover things about my wife that I didn't know before! This is much more the case between states. Thus we have to examine how to bring about mutual understanding between the Japanese and the Chinese peoples that is as real and as extensive as possible.
The first rule to achieving mutual understanding is to maintain an open and fair attitude towards each other.
Wherever I go – whether it is to the US or China or even Myanmar – I encounter people with whom I can enjoy an exchange of views and become good friends. These people are open to the viewpoints and opinions of others, and they will carry on asking why others think in a particular way until they are satisfied they have got an answer.
Curiosity about the truth is a very strong and common characteristic that they share.
They are fair when passing their own judgments and form opinions based upon objective yardsticks. In today's China, that openness and fairness might be called a “scientific development attitude”.
Modesty about the truth is also a very common trait among them. They hesitate to reach a final conclusion if any doubts or unknowns remain.
In all respects, these people are fully entitled to be called first-class intellectuals. I am sure there are lots of such intellectuals in our societies and the number is growing thanks to ever enhanced educational levels.
The second rule should be ‘go and see for yourself, then pass your own judgment'.
The famous saying ‘seeing is believing' is absolutely right. In this respect, we are very excited by the positive results of the youth exchange programmes between Japan and China that have been conducted in the past two years. Most of the youths are high school students who have returned from their exchange trip with a plenty of positive stories and images of the other country. A particular highlight of their trips is the home stays at host families. They find new parents and siblings living across the ocean who they will remember warmly forever.
I am also encouraged by the voluntary activities carried out by the younger generations. Recently, for example, students from Tokyo University and Beijing University spontaneously organised a workshop in Beijing and entered into an in-depth dialogue on many serious questions that face us. In fact, I find that younger generations across borders share more in common than different generations within the same border!
Direct contacts between people are so important. We must expand direct contacts – which means that the government of Japan must continue working hard to issue more visas to Chinese visitors!
The third rule could be the attitude to or state of mind concerning other people that is embodied in one Chinese expression “寛容”, which can be translated into English as tolerance. This concept is closely connected with another Chinese character, “仁”, that represents the core philosophy of Confucianism and can be translated into English as benevolence, love or humanity. But again this tolerance can be derived in the right place and at the right time from a thorough understanding of your counterpart.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Even if we can adopt these three approaches that I have just outlined, mutual understanding among people from different cultural backgrounds is not an easy task.
Let me give you one example from my experience of how difficult is it to achieve.
When I was studying in Taipei, I decided to take a course in composition in order to improve my Chinese.
I found a tutor who had been a war correspondent during the Japanese invasion of China.
At that time, I had learned that my Chinese friends had a biased view of Bushido (武士道), that is the way of life that the samurai should follow, and they regarded it as the psychological background for Japan's invasion of China and the atrocities the Japanese army committed. So I decided to translate the introduction by a Japanese scholar to the famous Bushido book called “Hagakuremonjo” (葉隠聞書). This scholar used the then very popular European philosophy of “existentialism” to explain the meaning of Bushido and the samurai's way of life. My Chinese teacher repeatedly asked me if he was talking about 王道, that is the kingly way, or 覇道, the hegemonic way. Neither, I replied, this is a totally different concept from both of them, and I tried to explain the reasons at length.
After a few hours argument, we still could not reach a mutual understanding, as he only had traditional Chinese concepts and no room for new European concepts in his way of thinking. Of course, I have to admit that my Chinese in those days might not have been good enough to explain such a complicated topic as “existentialism”.
All in all, we must endeavour to understand our counterparts bearing in mind all three rules I have just mentioned. There are some typical cases concerning Japan that I want my Chinese friends to understand better.
The first case relates to pre-war Japan and the Japanese.
This year we celebrate the 1400th year anniversary of the dispatch of Japanese envoys to the Sui Dynasty. Archaeological findings actually trace back exchanges between the people of mainland China and the Japanese archipelago even further.
It is very unfortunate that the first massive contact between ordinary people took place in the form of the Japanese invasion of China in the last century. The Japanese that the Chinese masses encountered were soldiers, not somebody's father or husband or brother or lover. The image of the Japanese in Chinese minds was formed under these unusual and extreme circumstances.
This is the reason why Bushido was accused of being the psychological backbone behind Japan's invasion and the wartime atrocities committed by the Japanese army. This is not a fair assessment. The Bushido is not a textbook on how to kill.
In my view, the Bushido has two stages of development. The first stage can be represented by the book I just mentioned called “Hagakuremonjo” (葉隠聞書) written by Jocho Yamamoto (山本常朝) based on his own experiences as well as hearsay from the late 17th century. The famous phrase in that book, namely “I at last found that the bushido lies in the readiness to die” is said to represent the essence of the Bushido.
This phrase has been interpreted to mean that killing your own self and serving your lord wholeheartedly is the path that the samurai must follow. Another interpretation is that seeing your own death calmly is the way that the samurai can survive when fighting. I prefer the latter explanation.
From the middle of the 15th century up to the early 17th century, Japan experienced the Warring States Period. This was a time of the virtual disappearance of central authority, when warlords started to fight for hegemony. Battles and killings among the samurai were common throughout Japan. If you panicked in the fighting, you would be killed instantly. If you stayed calm, you could see the movements of your enemy clearly and survive.
The Bushido in its final form, on the other hand, is a combination of Confucianism, Buddhism in general and Chan Buddhism in particular, and traditional Japanese ethics. This is represented in the renowned English book entitled “Bushido” written by Inazo Nitobe (新渡戸稲造) and published in the late 19th century.
The samurai class was the ruling elite during the Tokugawa Shogunate from the early 17th century up to the middle of the 19th century. It was a stable and prosperous time. The samurai did not need to fight on the battlefield any more and instead governed the people in the areas they were assigned by the Shogun. In a way they became bureaucrats by bloodline. Thus they created a value system that fitted their needs, that is, to produce a well-educated elite with samurai characteristics to maintain social order and govern the ordinary people effectively.
The second example I would like to touch upon is the assessment of post-war Japan.
In 1972, just before the normalisation of Japan-China diplomatic relations, the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed in the People's Daily that Japanese militarism had been fully revived. This assessment of post-war Japan during the Cultural Revolution had an impact on people's opinions for many years afterwards come. Recently, the Chinese government and its leaders have made positive assessments of the road that Japan has taken as a peaceful nation since the end of the war.
In fact, post-war Japan was built up by rejecting basically anything that could be assigned to pre-war Japan. A new constitution was introduced that represented the most progressive thoughts of the time. Japan's political, economic and social structures were fundamentally altered, while the post-war economic development and prosperity fundamentally satisfied Japanese citizens, who realised that post-war Japan could achieve by peaceful means pre-war Japan's national goals, namely the survival and economic prosperity of Japan and recognition and respect from the world community.
The definition of militarism in Japanese, Chinese and English dictionaries differs somewhat from one language to another. But however you define it, there is no room for the revival of militarism in today's Japan.
Some critics in China say that Japanese society these days is swinging to the right, yearning for a revival of the pre-war mind-set, and that this trend has to be monitored with caution. I do not understand the reasoning behind this worry. If it is to do with the revival of militarism, then, as I pointed out, it is groundless.
The Japanese people have worked very hard to improve their living standards and earn international respect. They have attained both of them and now have been enjoying the greatest and longest period of prosperity in Japanese history.
But suddenly they have found that they are not satisfied with the current situation; the traditional family structure has been broken, many tragedies have taken place between parents or parents and their children; local communities have failed to construct a new configuration to replace the broken and outdated system; public security has worsened, endangering the innocent and the weak; the entire education system is in crisis. The list goes on.
Yearning for the good old days is one expression of our search for a solution. I too am searching for a solution. I do not deny the importance of conservatism in any society. To progress, we need advanced ideas. But we also need conservatism to maintain balance. A long time ago in the movie derived from the famous musical “Fiddler On The Roof”, the leading character, the Jew in Russia, sang “Without our traditions our lives would be as shaky as the fiddler on the roof”.
I hope my Chinese friends will not confuse conservatism with the ultra-nationalism before the war. I always advocate enlightened nationalism, which means we can better understand our national interests from a longer time span and a wider perspective. I am sure Japan, as a mature democracy, will continue to be guided by this kind of enlightened nationalism.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In January 1974, I accompanied then Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira to visit Beijing for the first time. We had to travel to Beijing via Hong Kong and Guangzhou. The journey took two nights and three days.
When I lived in Beijing from 1981 to 83 on my first positing there, I was able to witness for myself the newly introduced open door and reform policies. The Chinese people themselves were not sure that they would succeed, but needless to say, they are great accomplishments today.
It has been a very long journey, and I would therefore like to congratulate China wholeheartedly on its great success. I have nothing but praise for the leadership and diligence displayed by the Chinese government and the hard work invested by the Chinese people. I sincerely hope, and I am confident, that China, as a country destined to hold great power in the world, will play a more constructive role reflecting its greater global responsibility. Then China will find in Japan a neighbour that is a good, respectful and reliable partner, if we can overcome the obstacles that confront us and gain mutual understanding of each other.
Thank you very much!
(*'East Asia' and 'Asia' in this text include Japan,China,South Korea,Taiwan,Hong Kong,Singapore,Malaysia, Thailand,Philipine,Indonesia)
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