Address by Former Foreign Minister of Japan , Nobutaka Machimura

24 January, 2006 at the Royal Irish Academy

 

 

Good morning,

Members of the Royal Irish Academy ,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Thank you very much Mr. President for introducing me to all of you and I am very excited because itfs my first time to come to Dublin and this is my first experience to make a speech surrounded by such valuable books. So I hope I can complete my speech today, but later on I will answer your questions and if I cannot understand your English very well my colleague, Ambassador Hayashi might help me.

 

Please let me start my speech by placing on record my heartfelt appreciation of the Royal Irish Academy for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

 

When I was Minister for Foreign Affairs, I travelled a lot. But my travel schedules were always extremely tight.

 

It was like leaving Tokyo on a Friday after a Cabinet meeting, arriving in Washington DC on the same day, thanks to the time difference. Meeting Condoleezza Rice and others on that Friday and the following Saturday, leaving Washington DC on that same Saturday afternoon, spending twelve hours up in the air and wasting another twelve hours because of the time difference so I can show up at the next Diet Session and other meetings in Tokyo on the following Monday.So the time difference helped me a lot with that.

 

Japan sits west of America . But many times I even flew eastward from Washington DC on my way home, just to save a precious couple of hours. You never know how often I have wanted to jump out of the jumbo jet to parachute down to this Emerald Island so I could breathe just a bit of fresh air.

 

I am therefore very much glad that I finally made it. I thank again members of the Royal Irish Academy for giving me this long-awaited opportunity. You should be better served as well, by the way, for now, carrying no ministerial baggage, I can speak to you freely, without any spin.

 

Ireland has reminded me of many things. The first one is since I was a marvellous rugby player when I was in High School, so from that time on I am adoring the green rugby uniform of Ireland and thatfs why I put on the green tie today in order to show my respect toward the rugby team of Ireland, but unfortunately, last October Japanfs failed bid for hosting Rugby World Cup matches, to begin with. We failed to New Zealand , since the All Blackfs are stronger than the Japanese rugby team there is not doubt about thatcc.

 

That happened here in Dublin and worse still, on my watch as Foreign Minister. With this being the only flavour that is bitter, others are all too sweet to forget.

 

Firstly, I remember that Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress have all the fond memories of their two visits to Ireland . Her Majesty the Empress has always been very much keen on your country. In Their Majestiesf first trip to Ireland when they were the Crown Prince and Princess, she visited Trinity College . There she heard a poem read. She still remembers how the poem moved her.

 

The poet was Anthony Raftery, and the poem went like this.

 

Killedan the village where everything grows,

There are blackberries there and all that is good,

And if I were standing in the midst of my people,

Age would leave me and I'd be young once more.

 

So the poem is about his hometown, County Mayo .

 

My own hometown is in Hokkaido . Hokkaido is an island north of Honshu , where the capital city Tokyo is located, and the Hokkaido Island has one thing in common with Ireland . The size is almost the same. The population, however, is 40 per cent larger than that of Ireland . Why is it then, that you have had as many as 4 Nobel Prize winning novelists and poets while in Hokkaido , we have had none? c.so far, but we will some time.

 

Let me tell you one more thing about the literary tie that has connected Japan with Ireland . Guess who was among the earliest Irish visitors to Japan. I am not talking about Patricio Lafcadio Hearn, who still remains one of the most famous Irish men among the Japanese. By the way, his Japanese name is Yagumo Koizumi, not related to our Prime Minister, but Koisumi was a famous name from that time.

 

I am talking about another Irish man who is said to have visited Japan in 1709

. More than 300 year ago

 

His name is Gulliver. Yes. That famous Gulliver that Jonathan Swift wrote of. I have learned recently that the port town Gulliver is supposed to have arrived at is actually a town called Kannonzaki, or K-A-N-N-O-N-Z-A-K-I, a cosy sea-side town everyone in Japan knows. Not so far away from Tokyo port

 

You can now see how close Japan has been to Ireland for centuries.

 

I know, for example, you all must be very much proud of your economic accomplishment. I can tell because I also remember how poor my own country was in my childhood and how big a leap Japan has made since.

 

Ireland has never fought any war against Japan , to take another example.

 

And now, we are both two of the proudest economic achievers, two of the richest nations in terms of per capita GDP, two of the most egalitarian societies, and most important of all, two of the most peace-loving, freedom-loving democracies that sandwich the Eurasia landmass where a lot still seem fluid.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, may I take this opportunity to place one small request to the leaders of your government? I have done a little homework myself and come to know that you have your own gAsia Strategyh. That is a grand strategy, divided into two phases. You are now implementing the second phase that is extended to the year 2009. During the period, you have a plan to establish a very interesting research and education think-tank called Institute of Asian Affairs . It is to foster better understandings of Asia and its peoples, in order for Ireland to develop sound economic relationships with Asian nations.

 

When you will establish the institute, could I humbly request the following?

 

Please be so kind as to think of hiring a Japanese man or woman as a member of the board of directors, or as one of the senior researchers, if not as a Managing Director. Talk to the Japanese Foreign Ministry about who to hire, what to study, and indeed most importantly, how to fund. Our ambassador, Mr. Keiichi Hayashi is here always at your disposal exactly for businesses of that kind. By the way, Mr. Hayashi is quite famous for most brilliant diplomat in Japanese foreign ministry, so I am sure that he will be a good consultant to all of you who have some questions about Japan or Asia or international law because he was a Director General of International Law Bureau of Japanese Foreign Ministry. So he is the one most brilliant person so please, he is the most adequate person to consult with.

 

Japan , indeed, has been, still is, and will always be, your gateway to Asia , if as a people who love freedom and democracy you want to have a like-minded peer whom you can walk hand in hand with. Moreover, Ireland has about more than 40 Japanese companies made investments here, mostly 1980s and 90s, and they have made an important contribution to economic growth of Ireland .

 

Economically, Japan is still by far the largest in Asia , and I must stress the point.

 

Lately, many of you seem to be lured more and more and day by day by the powerful emergence of China and India . Your Prime Minister had been in India until yesterday.

 

There is nothing wrong with that. The same is true in Japan . You will see in bookstores in Tokyo a growing mountain of books related to China and India .

 

But bear with me a second. With the outstanding growth of Chinese and Indian economies, Japan is now smaller in relative terms?

 

A simple arithmetic would prove the opposite.

 

Japan is still so large that a growth of 2 to 3 per cent in Japan would add to the world the size of Singaporean economy. I hope no Singaporean Embassy people is here.

 

Indeed if I can cite what the Irish Central Statistics Office had to say, for the period between January and September 2005, you exported more to Japan than to the following countries COMBINED: Thailand , Hong Kong , South Korea , India and China . Japan bought 1.75 billion euro worth of Irish goods. Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, and India and China, again, all put together, bought 1.71 billion, still less than the amount for Japan. Japan bought €1.75 billion worth of Irish goods. Japan alone. Whereas Thailand , Hong Kong , South Korea , India , and china combined, all put together bought €1.71 billion, still less than the amount for Japan .

 

That shows that Japan is still big existence. Let me briefly touch upon the Japanese economic situation. Last decade or so, especially 1990s was a miserable decade for Japan . It was a stagnant period of time. But that period has almost finished. Our Prime Minister took his position almost five year ago and form that time on our economy is growing gradually and gradually. The fiscal year 2001 the nominal growth rate of the Japanese economy GDP is –0.5%. In nominal terms –1.1%. Whereas fiscal year 2005 the nominal growth rate is +1.6% and in real terms +2.7%. So itfs a big change that is achieved mainly through private sector demand like consumption or fixed private investment not government expenditure or tax cuts, those you knowcfiscal stimulus. If you look at the labour market, unemployment rate was the highest the worst January 2003 5.5%. Now its fallen down to 4.234%c. something like that. So 1% less than the worst period of time. The number of employees has increased last two years by about 1.5 million. So those figures show how successful the structural reform by Prime Minister Koizumi has done in the last 4 or 5 years. Non-performing loan ratio fell down from 8.4% to 2.9%. This is a kind of normal standard. Deregulation has proceeded and privitisation of post was achieved last fall and I think we will do more structural reform in the coming years ahead to revitalise our private economy. So I think Japanese economy will be sustainable for years ahead.  So if you have some money to put in the stock market, why donft you put it in the Japanese Tokyo stock market? Itfs a good place for you to put.

 

Also, Japan is one of the largest employers of your college graduates. What do I mean by saying so?

 

Each and every year, about 100 young men and women who are fresh out of college in Ireland find their places to work in Japan on a Japanese government program called JET, or Japan Exchange and Teaching.

 

They spread across Japan . Some teach English at schools, and others work as public servants at municipal governments. They work there to bridge Japan and overseas countries. I can see even here in this room there are some who have good memories in Japan as JETs. It would be very nice of your government leaders also to hire former JETs as members of the Institute of Asian Affairs , because it is those former JETs who have lots of hands-on knowledge about how Japan and the rest of Asia work and interact.

 

May I now shift my attention to a subject that is gaining currency also in this country?

 

In comparison to Europe , East Asia is richly diversified in terms of political systems, stages of economic development, ethnic groups, religion and on other fronts. The perceptions of security and the awareness of threats also differ from country to country, while not all nations in the region share the same fundamental values that Japan and Europe possess in common. On this point, the origins of the attempt to evolve an gEast Asian community,h a vision currently being advanced by Japan and its Asian partners, differ from those of the European Union – a community founded by countries that share fundamental values and culture, and are also similar in their stages of economic development. 

 

Another aspect where East Asia region differs from Europe is its security environment. The East Asia region has not seen major changes in its security environment that Europe experienced with the end of the Cold War era. It can be said that in East Asia the Cold War structure continues to exist today in some respects. The degree of existing military transparency also differs widely from country to country. 

 

For example, there are countries in East Asia which continue to face the issues of nuclear missiles, tense cross-strait relations, and other real security problems. There are also countries which are involved in internal secession and independence movements, as well as those who possess territorial disputes in the region.

 

Since 2002, concern in the international community has once again escalated regarding the nuclear issue in North Korea . This issue is not only giving serious effect to the security of East Asia including that of Japan, but it is also a matter of grave concern for the international community at large, from the standpoint of  non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. At present, efforts are being made through the Six-Party Talks and other means to resolve the issue. 

 

In addition, the human rights issue in North Korea has also emerged as a concern for the international community. Last month, through diplomatic efforts by the EU, Japan and other co-sponsor countries, a resolution on the gSituation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea h was adopted by a plenary session of the UN General Assembly for the first time. In there, a mention was given clearly to the fact that North Korea has abducted innocent citizens. The victims of such abductions apparently are not limited to Japanese citizens. Some are from Thailand , some from Laos , Philippine, or Hong Kong or some place.

 

Japan , for its part, will continue to cooperate with the EU to address these and other human rights problems in North Korea .

 

Increased defence spending, introduction of new armaments, and other military expansion and modernization are also taking place in this region, while lacking their transparency.

 

Exactly like you, I am very much positive on China . I can even tell you that I am bullish on China . Just like you, we in Japan have benefited hugely from the growth of Chinese economy.

 

However, I also share some of the concerns you may have about the country.

 

Freedom of business is amply available in China . However, when it comes to Freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, still little is available in China , I must say.

 

Recently, Japan and China have had a bilateral high-level meeting. A request came to Japan at the time from the Chinese side that the government of Japan guide Japanese media to report China in more objective, calm and responsible manner.

 

Why did the Chinese officials say so? They said so because they wanted to give an even better spin to the image of China .

 

Responding to this request, our envoy explained that under the system that Japan chooses, the government of Japan can not control the media. I think politicians in the democratic society usually have never realising dream to control media. If itfs possible, Ifd like to, but it is impossible everywhere in the democratic countries.

 

The embargo was put in place in 1989 when the Tiananmen Square Incident took place. It has been there, intact, and there are some among leaders in Europe who argue that time is ripe for them to lift it.

 

This may have very little to do with your country, ladies and gentlemen. You have exported little amount of weaponry to China and you will sell little as well in the future.

 

But in talking to your colleagues and friends in Europe , please always bear in mind the following: that Chinese defence spending has been growing by more than 10 per cent for a long time. In fact, over the last consecutive 17 years, it has grown each and every year by more than 10 per cent.

 

The annual growth rate has ranged from 11.7 per cent to as much as 29.3. In 1989 when the double digit growth in defence spending started, the size of their defence budget was 25.1 billion Yuan. Little doubt by the year 2005, it had grown ten times to become 244.7 billion Yuan, or a little more than 25 billion euro.

 

This all being their official figure, experts would say that a real figure is much bigger than that. Probably double or three times as big as they have officially announced.

 

Their military is accountable only to the Communist Party of China.

 

Basically, Japan has sold no weaponry to any country. To sell no weaponry to anyone is one of those principles that Japan has faithfully kept. As a peace loving country, after the World War II.

 

We are a people who have had no interest whatsoever in making money by selling arms to others, and very much proudly so.

 

I personally would like as many countries as possible to be just like us. At the least, I should very much like the leaders of European nations to have a pause to pay heed to how much the Chinese have in their defence spending. Although there are a lot of difficulties between Japan and China , we must make every effort to strengthen the ties between the two countries. Not only economic relations but also people to people exchange, cultural and youth exchange and so on.  We do hope both countries further promote out co-operation through dialogue and deepen not only our mutual understanding but also our trust in each other. I, as a former Foreign Minister and realistic politician will work hard for positive future orientated relationship with China . Well, I was given about 30 minutes, you said that I have exceeded by 10 minutes more so I must stop here.

 

But I must confess I have already violated one of the golden maxims of George Bernard Shaw: Choose silence of all virtues, for by it you hear other men's imperfections, and conceal your own, he said.

 

Yet George Bernard Shaw also said, and I quote, gHe knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political careerh. And what have I done so far in my life? I have pursued a political career. Thank you very much.