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Will economic
disarray contribute to the erosion of crucial regional and global political
ties? Will this be short term or
permanent? Short piece here
followed by an opinion from Japan Echo
in which the author prefers the term “East Asian regionalization”, perhaps as
good a term as any to describe Japan’s transformation from the ambitious,
imperalist “Land of the Rising Sun” to being one of the best homeboys in the
neighborhood. The author endorses
a regional polling center to provide an “Asiabarometer”, along the lines of the
EU’s “Eurobarometer”. Subtle
shifts away from Wall Street? Will
the global pain of US corporate greed scandals create less submissive Asian
partners? - Karen Watters Cole Japan Fears Its Weakened
Economy Is Becoming America's Prey
By James Brooke, NYT, 11.03.02 TOKYO, Nov. 2 — Back when Pete Wilson became governor of
California a decade ago, people here used to say that the real estate value of
the Imperial Palace grounds in central Tokyo was higher than the economic
production of all of California. On Friday, the former governor was in town here, brandishing
a new report in tune with the changed times, "Can Japan Come Back?" . Without reforms, American investors "are going to lose
interest in Japan, and Japan is going to see investment diverted, most likely
to China," Mr. Wilson warned, speaking to the foreign press club here. As
aides distributed the report, by the Pacific Council on International Policy,
an academic research group, the moats and gardens of the Imperial Palace seemed
to shrink into a chill autumn fog 20 floors below. The Japanese have long known that the economic tables have
turned since the golden days of the late 1980's, when their banks, investors
and shoppers ruled the West. But this week brought a series of one-two punches to a
country Mr. Wilson called "a
place of micro optimism and macro pessimism." On Thursday, Japan learned that China was on track to
displace Japan this year as the world's second-largest personal computer
market, after the United States.
Making news on Friday was an announcement that Japan's highest-paid
baseball player, Hideki Matsui, had decided to decamp for the United States to play
in the major leagues; and the Finance Ministry announced that tax receipts
during the first half of this fiscal year were down 17 percent over the same
period last year. All
week, Japan wrestled with fears that America Inc. was plotting to buy Japan
Inc. — at a deep discount. According to the conspiracy talk, Heizo Takenaka, the new economy chief, was doing the
bidding of American "vulture
funds"
by planning to knock over shaky banks and force bankruptcies of companies that
are insolvent on paper. Those
rumors helped force Mr. Takenaka to water down his plan to tackle Japan's
12-year-old bad-loan problem. "Agent of the Americans" screamed one tabloid
headline about Mr. Takenaka, the minister of economy and of financial services. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/03/international/asia/03JAPA.html JAPAN IN ASIA The
region encompassing Japan, South Korea, and coastal areas of China, along with
Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the countries of Southeast Asia, is now commonly
referred to as "East Asia."
But it was not until the latter half of the 1980s, when regionwide
economic development engendered a degree of regional coherence, that this
appellation took hold. The "regionalization" of East
Asia was spurred by the 1985 Plaza accord on currency realignment, which pushed up the value of the yen
sharply; this encouraged Japanese manufacturers to move their production bases
offshore, particularly to other East Asian countries, and led to the building
of broader, deeper networks among businesses. Given the current level of engagement, Japan would be hard
pressed to survive without the region; the country once stood apart from the
rest of Asia, prompting frequent references to "Japan and
Asia," but now
it increasingly finds itself firmly embedded "in
Asia." As
American-style capitalism sweeps throughout the post-Cold War world, how should
East Asian stability be ensured, and how should market failures be dealt
with? Where should Japan position
itself in East Asia--the world's growth center--and how can it benefit from the
region's development? These
questions, which will have a huge bearing on Japan's future, underlie the broad
debate on the creation of institutional frameworks to accompany the de facto
regionalization that has already progressed to a considerable degree. The
two articles in this section can be viewed as forming part of this debate. Given the reality of East Asian
regionalization, they call for Japan to brace itself for closer integration
with its neighbors. While Munakata
Naoko's call for Japan to commit itself to economic integration is not new, she
offers fresh insights by clearly pointing out the need to overhaul Japan's
political and economic structure.
This, she insists, is the challenge that Japan confronts. Given the aging of the population and
the falling birthrate, sustaining present living standards will require that
Japan push for East Asian economic integration so as to reap benefits from the
region's economic dynamism. This
must be preceded, though, by the dismantling of the dual structure that has thus far characterized the Japanese
economy, where a "few competitive sectors powered the economy, and wealth
was redistributed by a variety of means to the majority of protected,
uncompetitive industries." Munakata
emphasizes that there must be no "sanctuaries" from
liberalization--that free trade agreements with other countries must involve
sectors previously exempted from market-opening moves. This is no doubt true. But Japan must brace itself for much
more than liberalization if it seeks closer economic alignment with, say, the
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In addition to liberalizing trade--the
cornerstone of any free trade agreement--it must also adopt measures to
facilitate trade and investment, such as the mutual recognition of rules and
standards and the online handling of trade formalities, along with the
harmonization of systems, the development of human resources, and the
facilitation of the cross-border movement of people. These efforts are vital for both East Asian integration and
the success of reform in Japan. Inoguchi
Takashi, meanwhile, proposes the establishment of an independent, cross-border
polling organization in Asia as a social scientific research tool--an
"Asiabarometer" along the lines of the European Union's
Eurobarometer. This proposal has
been spurred by the moves toward regionalization since the 1980s and the
maturation of the social and cultural conditions necessary for full-fledged
intellectual exchange. The rise of the urban middle class in many East
Asian countries over
the past 15 to 20 years has been accompanied by an expansion of educational
opportunities, the spread of consumer-driven culture, the growing influence of
the media, an increase in the number of nongovernmental organizations, and the
advance of globalization. These developments
have raised the urban middle class into a position of cultural hegemony in many
countries. At the same time, the region has seen the
emergence of substantial numbers of opinion leaders, including intellectuals,
journalists, university professors, social activists, writers, artists, and
others who have degrees from U.S., European, and Japanese universities and who
are bilingual or even trilingual. The proposal
to build an "Asiabarometer" is a response to these realities. Such an intellectual infrastructure
would be a highly effective means of ascertaining trends among East Asia's new
urban middle class. (Shiraishi
Takashi, Professor, Kyoto University)
http://www.japanecho.com/sum/2002/290503.html Outgoing Mail
Scanned by NAV 2002 |
