港ユネスコ協会主催、港区教育委員会後援
第 25 回ディプロマッツ・レクチャー
2008 年 3 月 10 日（月） 3:00-4:30 PM
於・国際文化会館

What’s behind Japan’s diplomacy?
By Taro Aso, Member of the House of Representative, former Minister for Foreign AffairsThank you very much for having me
today here.
Seven months ago, on the 15th ofAugust, 2007, I was in Jericho, the old town
whose history dates back to, amazingly, 9000
B.C. It is a city that is in the West Bank. Israeli
Foreign Minister, the lady Foreign Minister,Tzipi Livni, was apparently nervous. By
contrast, the camera crew, a whole bunch ofthem, were extremely excited. Because it was
the first time in so many years, that the top
diplomats from Israel, Jordan, and thePalestine were all together, sharing the sameroom.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about
one of Japan’s initiatives, to create theCorridor for Peace and Prosperity, that starts
from the West Bank, and ends in Saudi
Arabia.

With nervous smiles and reluctant handshakes,
they sat down. Thus began the talk that I
chaired. Ladies, and gentlemen, I don’t thinkthat I can ever forget for the rest of my life
what I heard from them. Tzipi Livni said only
Japan can do this. Abdel Ilah Al Khatib, theJordanian Foreign Minister followed saying
exactly the same. Then, Saeb Erekat, thePalestinian Chief Negotiator, stood up andsaid the Japanese are here to show us our
future.
They have come all the way to say just one
thing---, with peace, there will be a future. The
Japanese are telling us, the Israelis, and thePalestinians, you are living in this same, tinyland. If you can live together, this land canprosper. This land can be rich in agriculture.
This land will be covered by vegetables. No
one else has come to show us such a vision,
the Japanese are visionaries, he concluded.

You know that in Israel, they make oranges.
Oranges in Jaffa, are world famous. Theiragriculture is well advanced. They havedeveloped a technology called drip irrigation.
There’s even a company in Israel called
NETAFIM. That’s the world’s best company
in the drip irrigation technology. Everyone in
Israel knows that the technology has worked
in their own land. And that the same
technology should work equally in the WestBank. But no one in Israel has ever come out
and offered the technology to the young men
and women in the Palestinian Region. It took
someone else to bridge the two. And thatsomeone else is Japan.

Japan has no historical baggage nor religious
to carry around in that part of the world.
That’s why Foreign Minister Livni is right.
Only Japan can bridge the gulf, be a catalyst,
to break the ice.

In the future, young men and women in
Palestine, would grow cherry tomatoes, orcoloured paprika, using the Israeli technology.
The fresh vegetables should then be able topass the Israeli gates as fast as possible while
they are really fresh. The vegetables would be
shipped from there to Saudi Arabia, therichest consumer market in the region. The
road in between is under construction using-1-Japan’s economic assistance. It is of course togive job opportunities to those unemployed inPalestine. The unemployment rate in the WestBank is still over 18%. But more important, it
plants two seeds, really.

easy place to build trust. I remember George
Shultz, former US Secretary of State, cited an
anecdote in his memoir, a book called
Turmoil and Triumph, that goes like this. A
frog and a scorpion are on the bank of the
Jordan River, and the scorpion, who can’tswim, wants to get across. He asks the frog,“Will you put me on your back and take me tothe other side?” “But”, the frog replies, “youmight sting me and then I’d drown” “Whyshould I do that?” says the scorpion, “I’ddrown too” So out they set. In the middle ofthe stream, the scorpion stings the frog. As
they are both going down, the frog asks,“Why did you do that? Now we’ll bothdrown” The scorpion replies, “This is theMiddle East”.

O

ne seed for building self-esteem, andthat’s for the Palestinian young. The
other for fostering trust between the
Israelis and the Palestinians.
And that’s crucial. Because for the vegetables
to be shipped quickly, the Israeli gates must
be wide open for them. For it to happen,
there must be trust. So fostering trust is
crucial in this project.
I do wish if I am lucky enough, I can see
myself that the West Bank area is covered
with green vegetables and with greater
confidence and self-esteem the Palestinians
will have gained.

Looking at the hostilities exchanged daily forsome time between the Israelis and thePalestinians, you may want to say that’s theMiddle East as usual, the harsh reality of it.
Still, I shall keep on urging them never to losevision for a possible future where the Israelis
and the Palestinians exchange no bullets but
knowledge such as drip irrigation.

About these, I have once told an American
who was in a leading position of the Bushadministration. His response was, “Are you
sure? Are you really really sure?” I said, “Yes,of course, we are not talking of a dream, weare serious”. He then said, “Boy, that isbeyond my imagination”.

Japan’s initiative, once again, the Corridor for
Peace and Prosperity, is about planting hope,is it not? It is also about building trust, andthese two, hope and trust, are thecommodities that are in the shortest supply in
the Middle East, are they not?

Now, upon hearing this I had to think about itagain. Then I came to realize one thing. To
bring about peace in the Middle East, the US,
UK, France and other major western powers
all called for politics and sometimes evenmilitary means, indeed. But I wonder whether
or not politics can cure such a chronic illness
that will turn young men and women into
terrorists.

W

here other countries may resort tomilitary force, or political means,
the Japanese do it instead witheconomic means. However, be that as it may,
it is not simply about making bread. That ismuch more than that. It is about believing inyourself. To believe that tomorrow can bebetter than today. It is also about to believethat if you work hard you can do it.

Terrorism grows in places where people haveno hope but only despair. No prospect but
poverty. Hardly politics, not to mention
military actions, can solve the root cause of
terrorism.

Let’s call it a can-do-spirit. That’s the positive
belief that’s run among the Japanesethroughout their modern development since
the days of Meiji all the way up to the present.
And that, I would argue, has saved JapanI know what Japan is doing there is not aneasy task. I know the Middle East is not an-2-

twice, first from Western colonization when
everyone else in Asia fell under its sway, andsecond from war-time devastations, when
Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and in fact mostother cities in Japan were made just plain flat.

as Japan’s investment spread in the region.
Malaysia, with its Look East policy, soon
followed suit. So did Thailand, Indonesia, andthe list would go on. So much so, that by thetime China started to catch up finally in theearly 1990s, it was no longer, purely, aJapanese way. It had become pretty much an
Asian way, a seasoned model that was handy
and available for the late comer to pick up.

And in the rest of Asia I should say, that’s thekind of spirit that did not come into being
until very very recently. Under Confucian
tradition, only women and the lower classworked. Men, especially the book-readingclass, were supposed to be free from any sortof sweaty labour. To sweat was what you
shouldn’t have done in the first place if you
were literate. The more they learned, the more
did they become to look down upon theworking class people.

P

ark Chung-hee, the late President of
the ROK, I think, may have been a
dictator of a sort. But he was the leader,the most courageous one, indeed, who tried tobreak that age-old tradition by tirelessly telling
his fellow South Koreans the same solid belief
that if you work hard, you can make it.
South Korea and Taiwan were among theearliest that took off in the 1970s from thestagnation and backwardness that Hegel andMarx both called “Asiatic”. And at the risk ofsounding politically incorrect, I should still
maintain that it was not by chance, that you
should see no secret behind it. Because thesetwo, South Korea and Taiwan, earlier than any
other in Asia, received Japanese investment,
the Japanese way of doing businesses, like
commitment into human capital, putting theworkers first, paying respect to consumers.
Sometimes it was a minor thing, like notthrowing change away to the customer. But
almost always, to those young women at the
department stores in Seoul, or in Taipei, it was
the Japanese manager who told that there
were manners and etiquettes that a sales
assistant should comply with.

And now, if you look at India, their turnseems to have come. The project to build
Delhi Metro is a good case in point. The
metro project was made possible by Japan’s
ODA. But the money was almost secondary.
It was the work ethics that the Japaneseconstruction workers brought forth to theIndian capital that counted most to theIndians. I am telling you my own account here,
what they told me in Delhi when I made avisit there.
The Japanese workers said many many times
that they had to fulfil the construction due
date, or nohki, in Japanese. As they said it somany times, Indians now say nohki,
themselves. They also told me when it says
the daily work begins at 8:00 o’clock, Indian
workers would gather at 8:00, starting to put
on uniforms, and come to the construction
site, say, at 8:20. But, the Japanese would
come at 20 to 8, and at 8:00 o’clock, already,they would have lined up at the site, ready tostart working, and that, impressed Indian
workers as well.
So the Japanese brought to them the Japanese
way of doing businesses, the work ethics, andthe personal dedication to the tasks ahead.
That was what impressed the Indians most.

You love your job. You identify
yourself with what you do. You do it
to make you who you are. To love
your job, is to love your colleagues, and tocare about your future, the future for you andyour family, and for your own community,and your own country.

Gradually but steadily, the belief, thecan-do-spirit, the core philosophy of theJapanese, started to spread in the rest of Asia,-3-

That is at the core of what I call Japanese wayof living, if not to say Japanese philosophy.
And that starts from loving what you do.

but fun, their own nation should also stand up,
and take off, just like Japan, South Korea,
Taiwan, and many others in Asia. The
Japanese government called it to foster
ownership. Ownership of what? You may ask.
That’s ownership of their own development,of their own lives, and most importantly, of
their own nation-building.

L

et me say this to you, ladies andgentlemen, I was born a Catholic, andstill am I. But since childhood, I havebeen keen on reading Kojiki and other old
Japanese tales. Kojiki is an account, publishedin 712, a collection of stories about Gods inJapan. According to Kojiki, the Sun-Goddess,
the god of all gods, Amaterasu was a hard
worker. She would always weave clothes. And
she was no exception, actually. Because all her
fellow gods also worked hard. In Japanese
mythology, gods are workers, and they love
what they do. What a difference, really,
between the Japanese mythology and some of
the cultures where the single almighty God
punishes humans by forcing them to work. To
work in those monotheist cultures is as if toendure punishment. Here, that’s the opposite.
To work is a path to gain happiness. And that,is at the heart of my own philosophy as well
as at the core of Japan’s diplomacy.

Looking back, you may recall, when theJapanese started to say ownership was
important back in the early 1990s, it was aminority view. Afro pessimism was so
rampant that Western donors were also
pessimistic, thinking that Africa could neverfollow the path travelled by the Asians. Most
Europeans were sceptical at best, if theAfricans could obtain such a thing as thesense of ownership. The Japanese did not buy
that argument. They believed that it mighttake long, but the can-do-spirit could takeroot also in Africa, if the donors stop
behaving like sugar-daddies, and start giving
incentives, economic incentives, to theAfricans.

A good example is in Japan’s African
diplomacy. The Japanese have long
maintained ODA should not be made as
charity. It must give the receivers an incentive
for them to start working themselves.

And now, if you look around, it is theAfricans themselves who are saying exactly
the same thing as the Japanese have continued
to say, that ownership is most important, thatis what counts most.

Let’s think about it. Where they can expect
fish as part of economic aid, what can they
expect to get from the Japanese? I am nottalking about refugees, and such people as
would be in most urgent need of food. But if
it was for the people in normal situations,would it be fish? Absolutely not. That’s
fishing rods and the know-how to use them.
Where they can expect bread, the same thing.
Japan is giving them no bread, but wheat, andthe agricultural knowledge, necessary to growwheat. Because someday, sometime, you must
do it yourself. If you do it, you can be amaster of your own fate and of your own life.

Here, I think, I shouldn’t be humble. It’s asuccess story for Japan’s aid policy. Surely, inthat regard, Japan’s diplomacy has paid off.
And the obtained sense of ownership, I think,is an everlasting foundation for African
development.

Now, the Chinese may be rushing toAfrica for most everything Africa
can offer, like natural resources,
consumer markets for labour intensive goods,
as well as job markets for the Chinese migrant
workers. People say, their assistance is much
more visible than the Japanese, because theChinese build trophy projects, Presidential
palaces, football stadiums, TV broadcastingstations and so on and so forth.

And only when lots of people have come tounderstand that to work is actually not bad,-4-

want to ask. To that, my own answer is that
the Japanese love to work, they like others
who also love to work. I have said Amaterasu
was a hard worker. I can tell you for sure,
Their majesties the Emperor and Empress ofJapan are the busiest, the most hard-working
royal couple that you have ever had in history.
So that’s what Japan is all about.

But look, and think hard about it. Who will
maintain the stadium in 15 years time when its
wall gets a lot of cracks, its ceiling, leaks,
which surely they will? If you don’t haveskilled labour force, who can mend the wall,the one time shiny stadium will be left
standing in decay, with little care given to it.

As an OECD member, Japan cannot,
should not give anything likepresidential palace as part of its ODA.
But I think Japan’s assistance is most visible
nowhere else but in the shining light of theeyes of African people who have gained
self-esteem, a sense, that to work is no pain
but fun, and a path to happiness. Because in
Africa, Japan’s diplomacy has always focusedon fostering their sense of ownership,
empowering people and their communities.
Because that’s been an exercise to invest into
people’s hearts and minds.

There has always been a strong persistentundercurrent that’s been the backbone ofJapanese development. And that, you alreadyknow, is the dedication to what you do, andthe belief, that if you work hard today there
will be a better tomorrow.
When I was Foreign Minister, my colleagues,
like the retired Vice Minister Shotaro Yachi,
and I were in a mind-searching mode. What
are the assets, the most valuable assets, thatJapan has in order for us to pursue our
diplomatic goals? What distinguishes Japan
from China or India to which, naturally,
people in the world pay more and more
attention?

I see here the classic can-do-spirit is alive andpowerful among our JICA volunteers. They
are the men and women, who enjoy working
together with, learning together with, having
fun together with, and growing up together
with, people in Africa, children in Africa, andpatients in Africa. And I have no doubt that is
the foundation for Japan’s diplomacy.

Yachi flew to many places, and so did I, withthose questions in mind. And I can tell you
this. Each and every trip I made gave me asense that Japan was being viewed as a partner
they can trust and much more so than I had
imagined before. As this was always the case, I
was in high spirits, not tired at all in comingback home. BBC World Service gave us anassurance by its poll ranking Japan the top asa country whose contribution is mostly
positive.

Many people have asked me. Why is it, Mr.
Aso? Why is Japan like this?
It’s obviously the most developed country in
the non-Western world. Its modernization
dates back to 150 years ago. In fact, you may
remember that exactly 150 years ago in 1858
Japan entered into official relations with
America, Holland, Russia, Britain and France
by way of force imposed by the Western
powers as every one of you knows.

With that renewed confidence, we started toscan the world. There emerged many nations,young countries, that are eager to talk to us
and keen to learn what the Japanese might beable to tell them.

S

A lot have happened since. And yet, more or
less, the Japanese are the same as they were a
century and a half ago. Why is this continuity
despite all the changes during the course still
powerful? That’s the question you might alsoo it dawned on us. Look at the Baltic 3,
Visegrad 4, GUAM, that is Georgia,
Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova,
Central Asian countries, Turkey, the SAARC,
the CLV, that’s Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam,-5-

plus Myanmar, and Mongolia. Most of them
are in great transition from the old regime to anew, all aspiring to become democracy, andmarket economy, very much friendly to Japan,
eager to hear what Japan would have to say.
Hence came, by connecting the dots, ourinitiative to create the AFP, or Arc of
Freedom and Prosperity. It took time for us
to see that there is a huge demand in thoseplaces for what Japan could offer. But finally,
we pushed the AFP as a demand-driven
initiative.

have entered a strategic partnership. The key
here is that you see Japan is expanding its
diplomatic horizon by getting closer still tothe democratic peers, which range from theUS, Australia, India, the NATO to lots ofothers in the world. The same can be madeabout Japan-ROK relationship, which, withthe start of Lee Myung-bak administration,
looks promising. And with China, Japan’s
relationship is very much stable now, goodenough for both nations to profit from one
another.

A

So all told, ladies and gentlemen, Japan’s
diplomatic infrastructure is stronger than everbefore. With its economy, still as big as China,
India, and Russia combined, and its culture,from traditional art to modern, from manga,anime, cos-play to pop music, and to sushi
and other Japanese cuisine, all in tremendous
vogue from San Paolo to Moscow, and from
Hong Kong to Warsaw, I see the road ahead
for Japan’s diplomacy can hardly be bumpy.

footnote may be in order here. So
long as demand is there we’re notgoing anywhere. Mr. Masahiko
Koumura, the current Foreign Minister, hasbeen a good friend of mine for many years.
But you know, he is much more gracious thanme. He has his big idea in his mind but unlike
someone you are now looking at he doesn’tshow it, I mean as undiplomatically as I do. So,
you may say the Arc idea is gone. The truth ofthe matter is that is not. Its building blocks arebeing added. To assure you I should urge you
to take a look at which countries Japan’s
assistance is going to. That will give you
powerful evidence.
One other thing before conclusion. There was
one more reason why we were able to launch
the AFP. That is the foundation for Japan’s
diplomacy has never been more solid andstable than it is now. In addition to thealliance we have with the USA you now seethat the NATO has appeared bigger still on
Japan’s radar screen. That’s because Japan and
the NATO have done, in fact more thananytime before in the sea and on the ground.
Japan and NATO share the same set of values,
and almost identical interests, in maintaining
good order in the world. So it makes perfectsense that Japan and NATO work together
for the betterment of East and Central
Europe and beyond. Also with NATO, you
can make your tie with the US stronger stillfrom an Atlantic angle.
In the Asia Pacific region, Japan and Australia-6-So it’s people like me who bear
responsibilities as Japan’s politicalleaders to take advantage of such a rangeof assets as above to steer the course forJapan to continue to prosper and to gain evenmore influence throughout the world. Of
course you must do a lot, like making it
possible for Japan to get engaged in collective
defence, and in the end, changing theConstitution for it to adapt to the 21st
century.
Still, you can be an optimist. I will tell you thereason why. That’s because the LDP’s
political capital has hit the deepest bottom. If
you have hit the bottom where can you go?
You can go only to one direction, and that’s
north, I mean, upwards.
Thank you very much, and I am now happy totake a few questions.
END