January 19, 2005
LETTER FROM ASIA
The Japan-China Stew: Sweet and Sour
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
Kimimasa Mayama/Reuters
Pride of Tokyo, rancor of Beijing. Japanese Navy veterans marking Pearl Harbor Day last
month at a shrine for war dead, including war criminals. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
continues to visit the shrine, angering China.
OKYO, Jan. 16 Like many
Japanese
businessmen these
days, but particularly
as co-chairman of the
21st Century
Committee for Japan-China Friendship, Yotaro
Kobayashi is worried about the state of affairs
between Asia's two most powerful nations.
On one hand, since the committee was formed in
October 2003 under an agreement between the
countries, Mr. Kobayashi, 71, who is also chairman
of Fuji Xerox, has watched political relations fall to
their lowest point in years. On the other hand,
economic ties have continued to deepen, and China's
rise has kept buoying up the Japanese economy.
"Japan Inc.," the voguish term of the 1980's that
described an economic juggernaut in which
politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats moved in
balletic unison, may have never been completely
accurate. But as Japan confronts two realities - the
rise of China's economy and its rise as a political and
military power - the term may become history once
and for all.
In Japan today China has come to be regarded as a
partner by the business class and a rival, if not
outright adversary, by the political class. Indeed, the
dichotomy in Japan's view toward China has
widened to such an extent that, in recent months,
leading businessmen have begun publicly expressing
misgivings about Tokyo's policy toward Beijing: bad
politics is hurting business.
A flash point has been Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's continued visits to the Yasukuni Shrine
here, where Japanese war dead are venerated along
with Class A war criminals. Chinese leaders have
demanded that he stop, essentially making that a
condition for full-fledged Japanese participation in
the world's most coveted market. For China, the
visits symbolize Japan's lack of repentance over its
militarist past, which includes the brutal colonization
of Manchuria and the infamous "Rape of Nanjing,"
in which between 100,000 and 300,000 Chinese
were massacred.
"Prime Minister Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni
Shrine could spread negative views about Japan and
cause adverse effects on Japanese companies'
activities" in China, Kakutaro Kitashiro, chief of the
Japan Association of Corporate Executives and
chairman of I.B.M. Japan, said at a recent news
conference.
After a meeting of his committee in September, Mr.
Kobayashi, expressing a personal view, said the
"visits are rubbing against the grain of Chinese
people's sentiments and are also preventing Japan
and China from having a summit meeting."
After that comment, hard-line nationalist groups
flooded Mr. Kobayashi's office with angry faxes and
harassed his home with loudspeakers.
well as United States officials who want Tokyo to
act more assertively against Beijing, Japan chased
the submarine and criticized China.
The factors that are tearing apart Japan Inc. are only
gathering strength, beginning with China's exploding
economy.
At a meeting later in Santiago, Chile, President Hu
Jintao urged Mr. Koizumi to stop visiting Yasukuni;
so far, the Japanese leader has kept his intentions
vague. Calls are also rising here for Tokyo to cut aid
to China - Mr. Koizumi said it was time for China to
"graduate" from Japanese assistance - drawing
protests from Chinese officials, who have always
considered the aid more like de facto war
reparations.
Indeed, with Japanese exports to China growing at a
20 percent annual rate in recent months, China is set
to replace the United States as Japan's largest trading
partner. Companies ranging from Canon to
Matsushita Electrical Industrial, the maker of
Panasonic brand products, are building factories in
China and posting an increasingly larger share of
their Japanese employees there. The recent recovery
of Japan's economy would have been impossible
without growth in China, economists agree, and it
could quickly deflate with a Chinese downturn.
"Rather than seeing China's economic growth simply
as a threat, as it once was, the view to take it as a
challenge and chance is emerging recently," Mr.
Kobayashi said. "In fact, this is one of the major
elements that has been supporting the Japanese
economy for the last few years."
In stark contrast, political ties are described as
plumbing some of the lowest depths since relations
were normalized in 1972. An unfortunate turning
point was reached at last year's Asian Cup soccer
final in Beijing when young Chinese fans emboldened by an anti-Japanese nationalism and
angered by the Yasukuni visits - aggressively
harassed Japanese fans.
A series of incidents followed, each making matters
worse. In November, a Chinese Navy nuclear
submarine intruded into Japanese waters. To the
surprise and delight of Japanese conservatives, as
Last month, Tokyo took two steps that would have
been unthinkable a few years ago. In a rare
adjustment of its National Defense Program Outline,
Japan described China as a potential threat, drawing
condemnation from Beijing. Then the Japanese
government capped the year by granting a visa to
Lee Teng-hui, the former Taiwan president, for a
private visit, a move that infuriated the Chinese.
"I wonder if it's Japan's strategy to worsen its
relationship with China," Huang Xingyuan, a
counselor at the Chinese Embassy here, said in a
recent interview. What Japan may have intended as a
new show of power, Mr. Huang said, would lead to
both sides losing.
In keeping with Beijing's strategy toward Tokyo,
Mr. Huang quickly made the link between politics
and business. In October, China closed a deal to buy
$1.4 billion worth of trains.
"For China, it was ideal to buy them all from Japan
in terms of technology and maintenance," Mr.
Huang said. "But given Chinese political sentiment the people's opposition was too strong - we could
give only half of the project to Japan."