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November 10, 2005

Toward a Principled Integration of East Asia:
Concept of an East Asian Community (2)By YAMADA Takio
Comparison with Europe
East Asia in many respects contains greater diversity than Europe. Given that difference, is it
worthwhile for the nations of this region to set their sights on the concept of an East Asiancommunity? Europe is creating a community based on shared religious, historical, and cultural
foundations with Christianity and Greco-Roman civilization as the cornerstones. East Asia isincomparably more diverse, historically and culturally.
A more important difference is the groundwork. When European integration began in the 1950s,Western Europe already shared political and economic ideas; they believed in the strength of
democratic principles and market economics, and in NATO they had a common security systemfirmly in place. The Western European countries had also attained roughly similar levels ofeconomic development. Today’s East Asia does not have the same kind of commonality.
Such comparisons can be deceptive, however. Consider the period after World War I when
Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi was actively enlisting grass-roots participation in the Pan-Europamovement; Europe, then in the grip of a series of serious economic slumps, was the battlegroundfor sharply conflicting beliefs and values, as evidenced by the Franco-German conflict, theRussian revolution, and the rise of fascism. How many people in Europe in that period could
have foreseen the progress leading into the European integration of today? Compared topost-World War I Europe, present-day East Asia is far more stable and brimming with energy
and enthusiasm for the future. Coexisting within the region are diverse political systems, but acommon trend is growing among this group of countries moving toward economic liberalizationand greater political stability.
In other words, we should not conclude simply on the basis of a comparison with Europe that
East Asian integration is unrealistic. It is instructive to consider comparisons with Europe andother regions, but much more useful is to make a clear-eyed and dispassionate analysis of thecurrent conditions in and unique characteristics of East Asia, with a view to formulating the1most appropriate concepts and methods for integration.
Economy, Society, and Culture
What are the current conditions in and unique characteristics of East Asia? Let us look first at
some of the region’s economic, social, and cultural features.
We noted earlier that when the European integration process began in the 1950s, those countries
were already firmly committed to free market economics. In present-day East Asia, it is apparent
that socialism as a set of economic principles is losing the influence it once had and that theprinciples of market economics are permeating the entire region. China’s entry into the WTO
and Vietnam’s eagerness to pursue WTO accession negotiations are cases in point. Driven by theimpetus created by the widening acceptance of free market economic principles, in addition tothe efforts many countries are making toward economic liberalization, East Asia enjoys the mostdynamic economic growth in the world today. This vigorous growth, moreover, is spurring theprocess of de facto economic integration. The expanding network of active free trade
agreements and economic partnership agreements (FTAs/EPAs) is also pushing regional
economic integration. In addition, ongoing intraregional industrial specialization is creating anorganic regional economic system unique to East Asia.
This increasing interdependence in East Asia is not limited to business. The region is also seeing
the rapid development of functional networks of regional cooperation in a wide range of areas,including IT, the environment, energy, food safety, health care, counter-terrorism, anti-piracy,narcotics, and human trafficking. Many of these networks are built around ASEAN + 3 (Japan,China, and South Korea), but they are also intended to serve as a means for open cooperation
involving other partners such as Australia, New Zealand, India, and the United States.
The widening sociocultural exchange within the region has also been remarkable. A common
culture is being created that encompasses broadly shared lifestyles whose highlights at present
include Japanese music, anime, and cuisine; Hong Kong movies; Korean television dramas; andso on. The standard bearers of this new culture are a relatively young generation—the so-called
new middle class—that is emerging in many East Asian countries. As this type of exchange
continues and widens, we are beginning to see signs of a closer sociocultural solidarity among
countries in the region.
At the same time, many of the region’s most difficult, long-standing economic and social issues
have by no means disappeared. In particular, despite rapid economic growth in the region as awhole, huge disparities among countries in levels of income and development remain unchanged.
Among the most urgent tasks for the region are to remove the disparities and to act on the needfor human resources development in the least developed countries.

2In addition, insofar as countries negotiate economic partnership agreements separately,
differences have arisen in basic elements of the EPA/FTA networks such as stipulations
concerning rules of origin. As a result, some observers question whether these networks, which
are currently being fashioned piecemeal, will ever become coherent enough to lead to thecreation of a free trade area.
Even granting the seriousness and stubbornness of such problems, the emerging dynamism andincreasing cooperation and solidarity in the economic, social, and cultural spheres are creating
the backbone of a concept of an East Asian community. Whether the region can develop thosepositive trends further is a vital condition for enhancing regional prosperity and stability, and in
the long run, for transforming the concept of an East Asian community into reality.
(This is the text of an article by Mr. YAMADA Takio, Director of Regional Policy Division,
Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which originallyappeared in the Fall 2005 issue of the English edition of “GAIKO FORUM.”)3