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Japan and America's Interest in Northeast Asia

A Director's Forum with the Honorable J. Thomas Schieffer, United States Ambassador to Japan

Date & Time

Thursday
Sep. 6, 2007
10:00am – 11:00am ET

Overview

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer asserted the United States must stay actively engaged in the Asia-Pacific region, even as Asian countries redefine their regional politics and role in the world. "America is the indispensable ingredient for continued peace in the Pacific," said Schieffer, who has spent the last six years serving as an ambassador in the Pacific, first in Australia and currently in Japan. He said a U.S. role helps ensure regional stability, growing free markets, free thought, and free political institutions.

"Without an America engaged and aware of its leadership role in Asia, Asia would become a very dangerous place in a very short period of time," he said. "America is the only nation in the world that I see with the military and economic power to play both a stabilizing as well as nurturing role in the development of an Asian and international order that relies on the rule of law rather than the barrel of a gun."

With two of the world's largest and fastest-growing economies, large militaries, and more than half of the world's population, Asia plays a central role on the world stage, yet traditionally America's foreign policy has been Eurocentric, Schieffer said. The U.S. approach to Asia, he added, should also take into account Asia's different political outlook. Schieffer underscored that Europe traditionally sought a balance of power in its region and therefore tended to view power relationships horizontally. In Asia, however, relationships were traditionally vertical, with one power usually in charge and dictating to others. In Asia, one's advance usually came at another's expense, Schieffer said. In fact, the phrase "win-win situation" does not even translate into Asian languages.

Schieffer said Japan views the United States in the top position in Asia and sees itself as second in economic power. However, Japan worries that a rising China will bump it from its second number two position. "There has never been a time when both [Japan and China] enjoyed Great Power status at the same time," said Schieffer. The current situation is complicated in that Japan views China as both a growth opportunity and a rival, he said, adding that, "Japan wants to maintain a position of influence in the world where it can exert leadership rather than be reactive to the policies made by others."

On the security front, the Chinese and Japanese are quite concerned about the threat of North Korea developing nuclear weapons. A nuclear North Korea might compel Japan and South Korea to acquire nuclear capability, which would intensify mistrust and severely destabilize the region.

The Japanese, not surprisingly, are also intently focused on their current domestic political woes. Rocked by scandals and incompetence, the Prime Minister's Liberal Democratic Party was crushed in the Upper House elections this summer. In one such scandal that shattered public confidence, the Prime Minister's office revealed it lost more than 64 million pension records.

On the whole, observed Schieffer, Japan is redefining itself, seeking to distance itself from its World War II baggage and fully normalize relations with much of the world. The United States, meanwhile, seeks to expand relations with other Asian nations, including China. Schieffer said he believes it's important to reassure Japan that bilateral relations will not deteriorate as America deepens its friendships in other parts of Asia. He said, "The best chance for advance in multilateral relationships will come when our bilateral friends and allies believe their special relationships with the United States are not in danger of ending."

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Indo-Pacific Program

The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.   Read more

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