Japan
Tokyo’s Latest PALM Success
Japan's 'Summit' A Diplomatic Hit
Tokyo has long sought to play an influential if behind the scenes role in Pacific Islands affairs. Sensitive to the fact that it was once a colonial power in the Western Pacific, and that its World War II record in the region is still an open wound with some in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the Pacific Islands, Japan has moved cautiously in a region long dominated by Western powers.
But over the past 12 years, successive Japanese governments have used the so-called PALM Summit process (Pacific Island Leaders Meeting) as a coming out party – in slow motion. The fourth PALM Summit, held in late May in the resort town of Nago in Okinawa, was the most recent tri-annual get together hosted by Tokyo. It also marked Japan’s public acknowledgement that it is a player in the region.
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access through the islands for ships carrying spent nuclear fuel to Europe, and reprocessed fuel back to Japan; support for Japan’s aspirations to be permanent member of the United Nations Security Council; diplomatic backing of Japan’s controversial position that it be allowed to continue whaling for “scientific” reasons; and, access for Japan’s commercial fleets to fish for tuna in regional waters.
The PALM Summits have served as a useful way to line up the Pacific Islands states behind Tokyo on these issues in diplomatic venues as well as in the media. The most recent summit preceded votes on the UN Security Council and whaling issues. It lost on the Security Council but gained a valuable public relations boost when a number of island states (but, surprisingly, not all) backed its bid on continued whaling before the International Whaling Commission (see separate story in this issue).
Japan is clearly making an investment to ensure favorable outcomes on its core issues. At this year’s PALM Summit, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged the equivalent of $400 million in aid for the region, most of it in grants. That funding, to be spent over the next three years, represents a $116 million increase in overseas development assistance for the region over the past three years. While the PALM Summit was Koizumi’s last—he is stepping down and is scheduled to be replaced in September—its initiatives will likely be continued by his successors.
The growing importance of the Pacific Islands to metropolitan powers is becoming evident by the number of diplomatic gatherings such as the PALM Summit that are being held this year. China organized a summit of sorts in Fiji in April. Those in attendance were the regional nations that recognize Beijing. France then followed with its own “summit” in June in Paris. And not to be outdone, Taiwan will hold its own summit in Palau in September for the six Pacific Islands nations that
recognize Taipei.
Regional leaders haven’t received this much attention since the days when the Soviet Union and the Unitied States squared off, using the Pacific Islands as a diplomatic battle ground in the Cold War. Regional leaders are giddy with anticipation of new sources and levels of financial assistance.
Japanese officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were definitely not giddy after being asked, repeatedly, by reporters if this year’s PALM Summit was being held in reaction to the Chinese summit in Fiji a month before. They were, in fact, annoyed by the questions.
In reality, the Chinese summit was in part in response to the PALM gathering, one way for Beijing to overshadow Japan’s on-going diplomatic initiative and steal attention away from the Okinawa meeting.
While Tokyo’s efforts to win friends in the region is making headway, a parallel initiative to use the summit to build interest in Pacific Islands products is also moving forward. A Pacific trade expo, held in Tokyo just before the Okinawa summit, was at least twice as big as the last expo held in 2003. But one has to ask: are there that many Japanese who really want to drink Pacific Islands noni?
