The International Cooperation Initiative: The Three Pillars of Japan's International Cooperation
With the improvement in Japan's international standing, and especially the major economic growth that has been achieved, Japan today can no longer simply accept the international environment as a given but must look at the international community in the realization that Japanese actions are now themselves important factors influencing this international community.
In seeking to contribute to international peace and prosperity, Japan should not simply seek to expand its cooperation within the traditional framework but should participate creatively in the various international efforts and must contribute to a better world. In so doing, Japan will also contribute to its own peace and prosperity.
Realizing this, Japan has formulated and is implementing its International Cooperation Initiative built around the three pillars of cooperating for peace, expanding its ODA, and promoting international cultural exchange as the specific measures that Japan can do to contribute to the international community on the basic tasks to work for ensuring its own security and to contribute to the sound development of the global economy. Further enhancing the Japanese contribution to the international community in these areas and responding to the needs of the international community are thus immediate priority policies for Japan.
(a) Cooperating for Peace
Mankind has long hoped to secure world peace and stability, but the fact is that there are a number of destabilizing factors such as international conflicts, regional problems, and even international terrorism.
Given this situation and with the striking increase in Japan's national capabilities in recent years, the international community has come to hold increasing expectations of Japan, not just in such areas as economy and economic cooperation but also in such political areas as maintaining and securing international peace. As international peace and prosperity are now inexorable prerequisites to Japan's own peace and prosperity, Japan should no longer simply reap the benefits of a peaceful international environment but must take the initiative in taking part in maintaining and structuring this peace.
Seeking to cooperate in the cause of peace, Japan, while making every diplomatic effort to create firm foundations for peace in regional conflicts and other problem areas, must also diversify and expand its hitherto financial and other cooperations for peacekeeping activities and must participate positively in peacekeeping efforts under United Nations and other international auspices, including the dispatch of personnel. There is a clear need to make a positive and wide-ranging contribution to maintaining and enhancing world peace, including stepped-up refugee-relief efforts and vigorous contributions for reconstruction after the fighting has stopped.
(b) Enhancing ODA
Three-fourths of the world's population and many of the world's countries are still stuck at low levels of development, and their economic growth rates lag behind those of the industrialized countries. This poses serious problems for the sound development of the international community.
As a nation committed to peace and one of the world's economic leaders, Japan must contribute to reducing this North-South disparity and hence to enhancing the stability and development of the international community. Realizing that Japan has an important international responsibility to expand its ODA for the purposes of contributing to economic and social development, living standard stabilization, and welfare enhancement in the developing countries, Japan is implementing its ODA in keeping with the generally accepted ideals of interdependence and humanitarian considerations. Japan's ODA, with the sharp increases that have been achieved recently, has got to contribute to the economic and social stability of the developing countries and areas and hence to play certain role for peace and stability in these regions. It is imperative that these facets continue to be considered in implementing Japanese ODA.
At the same time, there has also been a sharp increase in the other industrialized countries' expectations of and interest in Japanese ODA in keeping with the dramatic growth of the Japanese economy.
Thus it was that Japan recently drew up the Fourth Mid-Term Target for ODA and is moving to make an even greater international contribution so as to respond positively to the expectations of both North and South and to play a role commensurate with its abilities. Keeping in mind the need to raise the share of Japan's ODA in the total ODA of the DAC members to a level commensurate with the size of the Japanese economy, Japan will work under this Fourth Mid-Term Target to raise its total ODA disbursements for the five years starting in 1988 to more than $50 billion and will also seek to raise the ratio of ODA to GNP as well as to expand the grant portion of aid to and to enhance debt relief for the least among less developed countries, to expand technical assistance including strengthening the provisions for foreign students studying in Japan, to promote cooperation through international institutions, and otherwise to enhance the quality of Japanese ODA.
(c) Promoting International Cultural Exchange
With the international flow of people and information becoming more vigorous along with the flow of goods and capital, deepening mutual understanding among all peoples is a perennial issue of new urgency for the international community. Cultural exchanges in a broad sense are thus important because they transcend the differences of political system and value to lay the foundations for mutual understanding among peoples and because they promote smoother economic and political relations.
The diverse cultures in the international community should all be seen as the shared heritage of all mankind, and all peoples everywhere should be able to enjoy their universal values. At the same time, the fostering of tolerance toward different cultures through such exchanges can well lead to a more open international community and greater international harmony, and the stimulus caused by the mutual exchange of diverse cultures can also generate new impetus for the international community's development. Likewise, Japan's promoting such international cultural exchanges also means that Japanese society will become more open to the rest of the world.
As Japan's relations with the rest of the international community have become both broader and deeper, frictions between Japan and these countries have arisen in a broader range of fields until they are not simply economic frictions but is frequently grounded upon misunderstanding or inadequate understanding of each other's cultures and social practices. This is a clear indication of the increasing importance both of seeking to ensure that Japan is open to the rest of the world not only materially and institutionally but in the broadest sense of the term and of responding positively to the heightened international interest in Japan and working to ensure that Japan is correctly understood overseas.
Along with promoting exchanges among the different cultures of the world to contribute to enriching the global culture, Japan must make a greater effort to promote cultural exchanges between Japan and the rest of the international community.
Reference:
Basic Tasks for Japanese Foreign Policy: Promotion of "Japan Contributing to a Better World"
