2008 年 2 月 8 日
欧州大使昼食会でのスピーチ

The Japanese want it, and they can do it.
Address to the EU Ambassadors' Luncheon, February 8, 2008
By Taro AsoExcellencies, thank you for inviting me.
Let me say a few words on theeconomy, and I will then address
Japan's foreign policy. I know that you arekeen on my initiative: the Arc of Freedom andProsperity. It has not gone away anywhere. Itis still there, and I will tell you why I say so.
But now, first about the economy.

I will tell you an episode. My home town,Chikuho, in Fukuoka, Kyushu, used to be thebiggest coal-mine district in Japan. As
Managing Director of a mining company, I
had to cut the workforce. I was like CarlosGohn when I was young in my early thirties.
From Chikuho tens of thousands have left,and we now have no coal mine operating.

Nikkei has fallen sharply over the last severalmonths. When Mr. Abe took office, Nikkei
Stock Index was fifteen thousand five
fifty-seven. When he left, Nikkei was sixteen
thousand four thirty-six. The Abeadministration lifted the index by eightseventy-eight. But the index is now down by
three thousand, or 20%. This is exactly what I
said would happen. I said, before the Julyelections, Nikkei would go down if the LDP
loses. Why did I say so? I thought Japan
would end up standing still, making nodecision on tough economic issues. I wasright, but I don't think I can be proud of myforesight. Because it is proof that economic
policies are not working well.

What I did instead was to invite a high-techcollege. My idea was, if you build a goodcollege, jobs will come, too. They actuallycame. Toyota is now among the biggest
employers, and Fukuoka the second biggest
car-making prefecture.
I can tell you. There is one thing that's infashion in Chikuho. That is, to get married.
More and more young men and women are
getting married, starting to have families.
Why? Because the car-making industry is
doing all right, and hiring three to four
hundred each year. Lots of temporary workers
have turned permanent. They have become
positive about their future. Only when you arepositive about the future, will you have yourfamily. And that's what's happening in myown district.

First of all, political leaders must pay much
more serious attention to the market. A deep,rich, transparent financial market is among themost important assets Japan has. There,
investors have lost their assets by 20-30%.
Still, there are some who don't trust equity.
That's a backward thinking. We must act now
in order for the investors to gain profits fromtheir investment.

No economics textbook has succeeded indescribing Japanese economy. You have thelowest interest rate in the history ofhumankind. Cash is abundant. People are rich.
Still, they don't see investment opportunities
here in Japan. Something is lacking here.

The question we should ask is this. Is Japan's
economy no longer competitive? The answer
is no. It is even more competitive than everbefore. You may remember that corporate
Japan has been more profitable than any time
before.

But the episode of Chikuho tells you one
thing. Young men and women are hungry for
future vision. With or without the problem of
the US sub-prime loan, they want to bepositive on tomorrow. Now, more than-1-

anytime before, it is the vision that matters,
the dream that counts.

Council took place. If you get closer toNATO, you can seek two goals. Number one,
you can send an important signal to theRussians. Number two, you will become
closer to Washington DC via Europe and theAtlantic, not only over the Pacific and thestate of California.

Also important is to increase the sharethe labour gets from the economy.
Ten years ago, the labour's share ofnational income was 73.4%. Now it has fallento the mid sixties. It is time for Japanesecompanies to pay more to the labour and toboost consumption, the real engine of theeconomy.

In the end, Japan is bigger than China, India,and Russia combined. The Russians must see
and feel the presence of Japan everywhere.
Only then could they take Japan far more
seriously. Indeed, it worked. They wereill-prepared for Japan teaming up with NATO.
They were even more amazed to see Japan
rapidly establishing a foothold in the former
COMECON area. While I was Foreign
Minister, Japan did a number of things tostrengthen ties with the Visegrad Four nations,the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland andSlovakia, the GUAM nations, Georgia,Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, the Balticnations, and Central Asian countries.

In any event, we could change the tax system
in order for the companies to do theaccelerated depreciation. We could charge
home buyers no tax for a certain period. We
could shelve for a moment the tight regulation
for construction. The government can do anumber of things without spending a pennyof new money.
In the end, we could build a government thatis small but strong and compassionate. The
SSCG, Small but Strong and Compassionate
Government is what we ought to have.

I found in each of those nations their views
toward Japan are very much positive. That's
the asset we should take advantage of.

Now, thanks for waiting. I will speak on theArc of Freedom and Prosperity.

Anyhow, I think for the first time after WorldWar Two, the Russians found Japan a global
player. You can also see clearly now thesymbolic value our service in the Indian
Ocean and Arabian Sea has had.

It aimed at shooting a couple of birds withone stone. I say this, not because I was trained
as a skeet shooter but because it really meant
it. Let's look first, at how the policy evolved.
In the Arabian Sea, the Japanese Maritime
Self-Defence met NATO navies. In Iraq, theJapanese Ground Self-Defence Force worked
with the armies from the UK and Holland,two core members of NATO. For the firsttime ever, the east and the west discovered
one another as real partners. On the NATOside, there was a growing interest in involving
non-NATO democracies. The time was ripe
for them to reach out to Japan.

Now, for Japan, the fact remains that the US
is the only alliance partner. Here, you need tobe very careful not to take anything for
granted. It is almost like an aged couple. You
have seen, haven't you, a couple having dinner
together in a restaurant, with no word spoken,
each looking idly at odd directions.
Washington and Tokyo must not become likethat. The NATO connection actually gave usa fresh, new bond to invest into the alliancerelationship.

We didn't hesitate to seize the moment. Mr.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, then Senior Vice Ministerfor Foreign Affairs, went to the North
Atlantic Council. Mr. Shotaro Yachi, thenVice Minister, did the same. And then myown visit and Prime Minister Abe's visit to theSo, you have killed two birds, if you like, withone stone so far.
That much is about the European front of theArc initiative. We asked the Diet and the2

Ministry of Finance to give us no new money
to do the Arc initiative. It was probably one of
the most cost-effective diplomatic assaults
that Japan has ever conducted.

blocks to make it ever stronger. With theBaltic nations, with the V4 countries, and withTurkey, GUAM and Central Asian nations,Japan will have closer and more endurable
contacts.

Turn then to Asia, I will be brief. The CLV,or CLMV region is what counts most.
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam are
the late comers. With the exception ofMyanmar, they are working hard to attainpeace and happiness through economic
prosperity and democracy. All those have tostrike a good balance in their relations withChina. They all want to become goodmembers in the ASEAN. And it is noaccident that many of those look at Japan forencouragement and assistance.

India will remain the largest recipient ofJapan's ODA. The CLV will also get moreadvice, more investment, and moreencouragement from Japan. So in conclusion,
we are going to continue to invest further intothe Arc.
You know that I have been citing a number oftimes the BBC World Service Poll. In that poll
the respondents in 27 countries are asked torate 12 countries -- Britain, Canada, China,France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea,
Russia, the USA, Venezuela -- and theEuropean Union, as having a positive or
negative influence. In 2006, Japan was thesecond most positive in the ranking, the firstbeing European Union. In 2007, Japan was
also second only to Canada.

We are doing exactly that, namely tohelp and encourage the Mekong
Delta nations. In Cambodia, forexample, they had to write the Civil Code. To
help them do that, Japan has sent legal experts,
all women, to the country.
You may also recall that Australia and India
have become ever closer to Japan in a numberof strategic ways.

I use the data often as I want my fellow
Japanese people to gain more confidence inwhat they can do to the rest of the world. As
Foreign Minister, I found the trust they havetowards the Japanese was much greater than I
thought. It is only the Japanese, in my view,who don't know it.

By now, I am certain that you see the outercrescent emerging along the rim of theEurasian continent. That's the Arc of
Freedom and Prosperity. That is the arc ofprosperity, because Japan can help grow theireconomies. That is the arc of freedom,because only when people, goods, and money
flow freely, can the world and Japan be betteroff. And it is Japan that has come the longest
way in the non-Western world to achieve
freedom. People in the arc area are aware thatthe road for democracy is bumpy. They knowthat Japan has taken that bumpy road andassume that Japan can provide them with alesson or two.

That is why I must continue to tell my fellow
Japanese citizens that YOU can do it. You canmake the world a better place. You can makethe world less dependent on carbon. You canmake the world rich in culture. You can tellthose people in developing nations that if theywork hard, it will pay off.
As in the economy, we are short of almost
nothing except for only one thing. That's
vision, encouragement, confidence inthemselves, and in their future. I for one
would like to continue to send the samemessage to the Japanese. Yes, you can do it, is
my message.
Thank you very much.
END

For those of you who still scratch your heads
wondering where the Arc has gone, I should
say only the following. I know you have heardof it less frequently than before. I will say,however, that the house needs no rhetoric any
more. Because we are continuing to build3