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Another year and another PM in Japan

By Graham Cooke - posted Wednesday, 24 September 2008


Mr Takaku says the thorny question of Japan’s whaling operations can be resolved through sensible negotiation. “I would hope Australia avoids taking the case to the International Court of Justice as this will only inflame nationalistic feelings in Japan and harden the nation’s response,” he said.

“The market share of whale meat is less than 1 per cent and many young Japanese have never tasted it. The whalers are having trouble recruiting crews and can’t afford to purchase a new whaling ship.”

The industry could well die a natural death in Japan if the anti-whaling nations were willing to compromise, such as allowing Japan to continue catching whales in its own offshore waters. “It is important that you do not put us into a corner,” he said.

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His thoughts were echoed by the Head of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research and the East Asia Forum, Peter Drysdale. “There have been diplomatic wobbles on both sides, but this is not unusual with Japan at the beginning of new governments in Australia of either stripe,” he said.

“They do remind us that the relationship requires its own kind of diplomacy, but the common strategic interests remain strong. Japan is still Australia’s largest export market; Japan is Australia’s closest political partner in East Asia and both Australia and Japan have inextricable political and security ties with the United States.

“Japan is either the largest (at current international market prices) or the second largest (at purchasing power parity) economy in Asia and is far and away the most sophisticated and wealthy one as well as being an open and vibrant democracy.”

However, in a recent address to the ACT Branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Professor Drysdale issued a warning that the “huge assets” in the relationship between the two countries, built up over 50 years, are being allowed to waste away, and pointed to the “limited and pretty ratty” media coverage of Mr Rudd’s visit to Japan earlier this year.

“In the past many of Australia’s top journalists were schooled in Japan - there is much less chance of that now,” he said. “The Fairfax Group has had no bureau in Japan for some time and Australia’s only financial newspaper has no correspondent in Australia’s largest economic partner.

“This is a national disgrace which both denies public access to important background on developments in the Japanese economy and politics and takes the pressure off the need for good management of the relationship.”

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He also criticised the former Liberal Government for “discouraging elevation of community commitment to the arduous task of being Asia-literate” and the decline in intellectual dialogue between the two countries.

Professor Drysdale noted that the Australia-Japan relationship has always needed to be nurtured with a special brand of diplomacy. For many years it was required in the face of the understandable antagonisms that fired the wartime generation.

That has largely faded into history, but it would be unfortunate if a distracted Japanese Government or series of governments allow a new breed of entrepreneurs, economists and politicians to succumb to the siren song of China just when a strategic partnership with Australia holds such intriguing possibilities, for both countries and for the region as a whole.

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About the Author

Graham Cooke has been a journalist for more than four decades, having lived in England, Northern Ireland, New Zealand and Australia, for a lengthy period covering the diplomatic round for The Canberra Times.


He has travelled to and reported on events in more than 20 countries, including an extended stay in the Middle East. Based in Canberra, where he obtains casual employment as a speech writer in the Australian Public Service, he continues to find occasional assignments overseas, supporting the coverage of international news organisations.

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