22The Region

News from Northeast Asia
Northeast Asia’s engagementswith the Middle East

Regional Editor
Ilhong KoThe Seoul National University Asia Center(SNUAC) is a research and international
exchange institute based in Seoul,
South Korea. The SNUAC’s most distinctive
feature is its cooperative approach infostering research projects andinternational exchange program throughclose interactions between regional andthematic research programs about Asiaand the world. To pursue its mission
to become a hub of Asian Studies, SNUAC
research teams are divided by different
regions and themes. Research centers andprograms are closely integrated, providing
a solid foundation for deeper analysisof Asian society.

Northeast Asia’sengagements withthe Middle East
Ilhong Ko

Northeast Asia’s links with the Middle East
can be traced back to ancient times, when thetwo regions were connected via trade routes.
The material remains of these trade relations,housed in the museums of Japan, South Korea,and China, are a vivid reminder of the active
movement of Arab merchants and goods. In themodern period, engagements between the tworegions have extended to the political, as wellas economic realms. In this issue of News from
Northeast Asia, we examine the reality of modern
interactions between the Middle Eastern region
and the countries of Northeast Asia, focusing on
issues such as energy, diplomacy, investment,and military relations.

Relations between Japanand the Middle East
Akiko YoshiokaThe beginning of the 20th century saw
a rapid increase in Japan’s demandfor oil, along with the introduction of
motor vehicles and warfare, while domestic
oil production had already peaked at the time.
Safeguarding a stable supply of oil becamea keystone of Japan’s energy security, which
led Japan to the Middle East, as well as Asia
and Russia.
Japan's first import of Middle Eastern
oil took place in 1921 from Iran.1 After WorldWar II, Japanese demand for oil continued
to increase, for postwar reconstructionand economic growth. Despite failing in
Saudi Arabia and Iraq in the 1930s due toinsufficient development funds and technicalcapacities,2 Japan’s endeavor to secure
crude oil by developing oil wells eventually
succeeded in 1957, when the Arabian Oil
Company gained concession of the Khafji
field at the neutral zone between Saudi Arabiaand Kuwait. However, since most of Japan’s
oil was imported through major Western
oil companies that controlled vast resources

by concession agreements, Japan’srelations with Middle Eastern countries,
albeit important, were not considered vital.
A paradigm shift occurred in 1973
when the Organization of Arab Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OAPEC) implemented
an oil embargo after the fourth Arab-Israeliwar. Japan had failed to be categorized
as an Arab-friendly nation and was informedof an export reduction. The news caused
a so-called ‘toilet-paper panic’ among
the Japanese who believed paper
production would soon stop, leading tomassive purchases. The oil crisis accelerated
inflation, which led the government tointroduce a legal framework to prevent thehoarding of goods and the arbitrary hikingof prices. This event inspired some serious
rethinking with regard to Japan’s energy
security and its relations with the Middle
East. As a new initiative to understandMiddle East geopolitics and to strengthenties, the Japanese Institute of Middle Eastern
Economies (JIME), the predecessor ofJIME Center-IEEJ, was established in 1974.

Above: Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Youji Muto, next to Dutch Foreign Minister Koenders, at the Pledging
Conference in Support of Iraq in July 2016. Image courtesy of United States Department of State.

Of the Northeast Asian countries,
Japan was the first to establish formal
economic relations with the Middle
East in the modern period. The way in whichthese economic, and later political, relations
developed throughout the 20th century to thepresent day is addressed by Akiko Yoshioka,
Senior Analyst at the JIME Center-IEEJ, in‘Relations between Japan and the Middle
East’. For South Korea, the Gulf region has
been a ‘land of opportunities’ since the 1970s.
In ‘Reinventing the Middle East? South Korea’s
Engagements with the Gulf amid Geopolitical
Conflicts’, June Park of Seoul NationalUniversity discusses the potentials and risksfacing South Korea’s maneuvers in the Middle
East. China’s presence in the Middle East isconsiderable indeed, and its influence in theregion is expected to increase even further.
In an attempt to present a multi-facetedview of China-Middle East relations, two
perspectives are presented. The way in which
China envisages its role in, and relationshipwith, the region is first illustrated by Tsinghua
University’s Tingyi Wang in ‘China and theMiddle East: Old Friends in a New Era’. The
reality of China’s engagements in the Middle
East is then examined by Ceren Ergenç ofMiddle East Technical University in ‘China’s
Relations with the Middle East: A Perspectivefrom the Region’.

On the energy security front, the nationaloil stockpile, which did not exist in 1973, is now
secured for more than 100 days, and energysaving measures have become prevalent inJapanese society. The Japanese government
also increased the use of nuclear energy
and natural gas in an attempt to diversify its
primary energy supply. Therefore, the share ofoil among primary energy sources decreased
significantly from 75.5% in 1973 to 41.1% in2015.3 However, in terms of dependence on
Middle Eastern oil, not much has changed;
the current share of the oil supply coming from
the Middle East is more than 80%, higher than
the 77.5% in 1973 –although it did temporarily
decrease in 1987 to 69.7%. In 2015, four Middle
Eastern nations –Saudi Arabia, the UAE,Kuwait, and Qatar –provided as much as
75.4% of Japan’s oil. Since 1975, either Saudi
Arabia or the UAE have been top oil exporters
to Japan; meanwhile, UAE, Qatar, and Oman
provide a quarter share of Japan’s natural gas
supply. In 2011 Qatar doubled its gas export
to Japan following the suspension of nuclear
power operations caused by the Great East
Japan Earthquake, and became Japan’s thirdgas provider besides Australia and Malaysia.4
Since the Ministry of Economy, Trade andIndustry (METI) has predicted that oil andnatural gas will continue to make up about halfof Japan’s primary energy in 2030, relationswith the Middle East shall remain the mostimportant for Japan’s energy security.
Relations between Japan and the Middle
East have grown outside the realm of energy
in past decades. The Middle East is an
important market for the automobiles andmachinery export, as well as for infrastructuredevelopment for Japanese companies, whohave also worked on enhancing humanresources and technical cooperation in various
fields through government support. JapanInternational Cooperation Agency (JICA)
has been engaged in several reconstruction
projects after the Iraq War in 2003, suchas power plants, water-supply systems,communication networks, oil refineries, andfertilizer factories. At the beginning of the
21st century, some gulf airlines introduced
direct flights to Japan and contributed toraising the profile of Arab Gulf countries
among the Japanese. Dubai has now becomea well-known tourist destination among theJapanese, in addition to the historic cities
of Istanbul and Cairo.
Beyond these economic aspects, the Middle
East has also been the center stage of national
security discussions, especially since the endof the Cold War. During the Gulf Crisis andthe Gulf War in 1990–1991, the Japanesegovernment maintained a rather tentative
approach to the hostage situation in Iraq,
where hundreds of Japanese were used as
human shields; at the same time they wereasked by the United States to contribute
militarily in the war as an ally. It was the firsttime post–World War II that Japan had to deal
with an international conflict. Even though
Japan ended up spending as much as $13billion, the ad hoc policy was not appreciatedin the international community, and theGulf War is now remembered as a diplomatic
defeat. Since then, Japan has pursueda ‘Proactive Contribution to Peace’ policy,
sending the Self-Defense Force (SDF) overseas
mainly through peace-keeping operations
with the UN. A new law in 2007 upgradedinternational operations as the primary
mission of the SDF. So far, the SDF has been
deployed to the Persian Gulf (1991), the Golan
Heights (1996–2013), Iraq (2004–2008), Sudan(2008–2011), and South Sudan (2011–2017),
as well as other Asian and African countries.
Japan’s active political and economic
engagement with the Middle East, at bothgovernment and private levels, aims to achieve
peace and stability in these countries. For thispurpose, Japan has been deeply involved in
the Middle East peace process since the 1990s.
However, Japan lacks the political leverage
to be an influential mediator between parties
in conflict because of stringent constitutional
limitations on the military sphere, despite
the historical advantage of neutrality it
has enjoyed in the Middle East comparedto European countries. Therefore, Japan’s
approach to energy security and strengthening
relations with the Middle East has been andwill be mainly to focus on the economic field,
including a steady and long-term commitment
to human and social development.

Dr Ilhong Ko Research Fellow at Seoul
National University Asia Center; Regional
Editor of ‘News from Northeast Asia’
mahari95@snu.ac.kr

Akiko Yoshioka Senior Analyst at JIME
Center-IEEJ (Institute of Energy Economics,Japan) yoshioka@jime.ieej.or.jp		Notes
1	Hosaka, S. 2014 (June/July). ‘Nihon towangan no sekiyu: baren sekiyu yunyuu 80
shuunen’, Chuto Kyouryoku Senta Nyusu.
2	Nakajima, I. 2015. Sekiyu to nihon: kunan
to zasetsu no shigengaikoushi. Tokyo:
Shinchousha, p.55.
3	The Energy Data & Modelling Center (IEEJ).
2017. Enerugi keizai toukei youran, p.26.
4	Ibid., pp.192-193.