COVERLEAD

Exploring Future
Relations in East Asia
By Naoyuki Haraoka

We seem to be living now in a more volatile, uncertain andcomplex world. The United States is not working as a leaderof global governance anymore and rising protectionism as
symbolized by the US-China trade war is threatening
international institutions like the WTO. This trade war may
not be limited to ordinary trade friction but expand to a“techno-cold war” between the two nations over new
technologies and national security, or even be interpreted asa war to compete for hegemony. Meanwhile, digitaltechnology has an increasing impact on economies andsocieties. The increase in e-commerce could raise global
economic growth potential, but concerns about jobs being
replaced by AI or other digital products are also increasing,as well as concerns over national security and infringements
of privacy. Both factors are important in thinking about thefuture political economy but their impacts are often complex
and ambiguous.
How can East Asia, often regarded as a locomotive forsustainable global growth in the future, tackle such risks andchallenges and take full advantage of the merits of newtechnology?
Though the nations in East Asia are not all like-minded andin particular do not share common political values, such as
respect for fundamental human rights and democratic
political systems, we need to explore mutually beneficial andproductive relations in this region in order to contribute to
the consolidation of global governance against the backdropof declining US leadership. Long-term thinking is crucial inthis regard to make East Asian nations into chief contributors
to global peace and prosperity. How can soft power help
them to achieve this goal?
I think there is a wide range of ideas which, at first glance,
may not appear to be useful in overcoming the political
diversity among East Asian nations but which should
nonetheless be considered over the longer term. One
example of soft power is language. What is not mentioned in
the cover story here is the idea of consolidating mutual
2 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2019

language education at schools in East Asian nations. India
may not be in East Asia, but could be regarded as such in abroader sense. The Japanese language boom in India could
be useful in the future to build good relations between thetwo countries. Expanding on this idea, might not Japaneseschools also adopt either or both Chinese and Korean as
subjects for learning, in addition to English?
This issue begins with an interview with Dr. Vinod K.
Aggarwal, director of the Berkeley APEC Study Center at theUniversity of California, Berkeley, in which he discusses theimplications of US-China rivalry for East Asia. Dr. Sachin
Chaturvedi and his colleague Dr. Priyadarshi Dash at
Research and Information System for Developing Countries(RIS), an Indian think tank, in the following article, lead us toIndo-Pacific cooperation, one way to enhance the role of Asia
(not only East Asia) in global governance, and then Dr. ClaudeMeyer, the author of The West Faces the Rebirth of China andan expert on Asia, writes about the future of relations
between Europe and China.
We then move on to the issue of the increase ine-commerce in the region in two articles, one focusing on
South Korea by Dr. Choong Yong Ahn and the other onTaiwan written by Dr. Man-Jung Mignonne Chan. On theissue of soft power, I contribute an article on inboundtourism in Japan partly based on interviews with foreign
tourists in the Ginza area where our office is located. This isfollowed by an interview article about the student discussion
exchange program “Jing Forum” between students fromPeking University and the University of Tokyo, anotherexperiment relating to soft power.
Finally, we have an article by Prof. Min-Hua Huang and Dr.
Mark Weatherall about National Taiwan University’s Asian
Barometer Survey, a comparative opinion poll study of Asian
countries that attempts to analyze the issue of populism inAsia with the aim of enhancing mutual knowledge andunderstanding of each nation’s politics.

https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

COVERLEAD(Brief Introductions)
COVER STORY 1Interview with Dr. Vinod K. Aggarwal, Travers Family Senior Faculty Fellowand Professor of Political Science & Director of the Berkeley APEC Study
Center (BASC) at the University of California, Berkeley

US-China Rivalry: Implications for East Asia
By Japan SPOTLIGHT

The decline in US leadership in global governance is a politicalstructural problem. Though it is very difficult to strengthen theWTO, the author believes that its dispute resolution process isbetter than the competitive liberalization that will be started by
the TPP11 and other regional trade arrangements.
COVER STORY 2
Indo-Pacific Cooperation from Indian Perspectives
By Sachin Chaturvedi & Priyadarshi Dash

A Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision will be a catalyst forbalanced regional development, assuming the Indo-Pacificregion acquires greater importance as a source of global
stability and peace. In this regard, complementarity between
different countries in the Indo-Pacific region has to be studiedand explored for deeper understanding.
COVER STORY 3
China & Europe: Confrontation or Dialogue?
By Claude Meyer

to foster the growth of SMEs in the light of expanding global
value chains.
COVER STORY 5
Out-of-the-Box Consultancy: a Premium Enterprise for Cross-Asia
Cultural Exchange
By Man-Jung Mignonne Chan

The author’s company, Out-of-the-Box Consultancy, iscontributing to inter-Asian cultural exchanges by helping
Asian companies find technical solutions in supply chain
connectivity.
COVER STORY 6
Observations on Inbound Tourism — Japan’s Soft Power
By Naoyuki Haraoka

This article addresses the motivations of inbound tourists inJapan and their impressions of the country on the basis ofinterviews with foreign tourists in Ginza and with theproducer of a popular TV Tokyo program, Why Did You
Come to Japan?
COVER STORY 7Interview with Yixuan Zhang & Shu Kittaka, Presidents of Jing Forum 2018

Jing Forum — a Venture for Youth Exchanges Between China &JapanBy Japan SPOTLIGHT

Active European-Chinese dialogue could lead to better global
governance. Cooperation between the two would be possible
in light of the history of cultural exchanges between China andthe European Jesuit missions in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Teams of student from Peking University and the Universityof Tokyo are enjoying their discussions on various issues
and hoping these will contribute to stable and peacefulrelations between China and Japan.

COVER STORY 4
E-commerce & ICT Development in South Korea: Prospects &Challenges
By Choong Yong Ahn

COVER STORY 8
The Asian Barometer Survey & the Challenge of Populism in Asia
By Min-Hua Huang & Mark Weatherall

South Korea, a global IT powerhouse, is a key player ine-commerce in East Asia. The role and importance ofe-commerce in boosting economic vitality in South Korea mayhelp us predict the future of an IT-dominant economy in Asia.
In particular, cross-border e-commerce would be the best way

The Fourth Wave of the Asian Barometer Survey tells us thatrising inequality is provoking anti-establishment sentiment inAsia as it has already done in Europe and the US.
Naoyuki Haraoka is editor-in-chief of Japan SPOTLIGHT & executive
managing director of the Japan Economic Foundation (JEF).
Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 20193