Speech by Mr. Yasuhisa SHIOZAKI
Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
at the 2nd Meeting of the Japan–US–China Trilateral Conference

May 20, 2006

Thank you for the kind introduction.

Distinguished participants and old friends of mine,

I am very proud to be given an opportunity today to speak to you about the future of the Asia Pacific region, most notably the relationship among Japan, the US and China, and Japan's foreign policy. But with the wonderful dinner [being served] [is waiting us], I would not want to spoil your appetite by feeding you too much words with diplomatic jargon, which an average Japanese politician could not understand at all. So I plan to restrict my remarks simply down to only three points tonight.

First, in order for designing the future of our trilateral relationship, it is critical to recognize the real picture of China's rising that we are facing with. The economic scale measured by nominal GDP tells us that China might catch up Japan as early as within the next decade. While one could raise many problems with regard to the sustainability of Chinese economic growth in the long run, history also tells us in many cases one country benefits from the neighboring country's economic growth. Prime Minister Koizumi has stressed on the importance of the rise of China to be an opportunity for all of us rather than a threat against us, which is based upon the right recognition of the real situation of China. Indeed, Japan has long supported prosperity of China through our ODA coupled with private sector investment during the past three decades.

In a globalizing world, the rise of China might offer both dynamism and instability to the region and the world at large. I believe a medium- to long-term pursuit of democracy and sound economic growth in China ensures significant opportunities. Most importantly, Japan and the US must observe not just our interests in economic, security, environment and other issues, but also our shared fundamental values of democracy, human rights and free speech, so that we could "shape" peaceful rising China that will be able to play as a reasonable, responsible and reliable colleague in the international community.

In this context, I appreciate the role China has played in chairing the Six-Party Talks on North Korea's problems including nuclear weapons development. With China's strong bilateral relations with North Korea, I hope to see further concrete contribution by China in order to reactivate the stagnant six party talks.

Second, Japan's role and US- Japan relations. I believe that an important task for Japan in the future is to demonstrate its full potential in furthering peace and prosperity in the Asia Pacific. More specifically, I earnestly hope to see Japan continue to serve as a "model," showing the countries in the region the way to tackle difficult challenges.

You may then ask what are the Japan's basic value ? Being aware of the history issues mainly stemming from actions of the pre-WW II Imperial Japanese military, Japan has vowed never to resort to military means to pursue national objectives. While both the US and China are great powers in the traditional sense, possessing big military power including nuclear weapons, Japan's peaceful diplomacy as a non-nuclear state has formed fundamental philosophy of Japan. And this policy remains unwavering.

With that background, the Japan-United States Alliance ensures that Japan has an ability to serve as catalyst for supporting stability in Asia. From a geopolitical viewpoint, this is obvious. Japan is located as the US's gateway to Asia. We are determined to keep the Asian Sea to be a sea of prosperity, safety and freedom. In addition, the Japan-US Alliance cooperation has progressed to cover global issues like Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and part of Africa, step by step. This cooperation will continue with no doubt, since US- Japan Alliance has deepened its role in order to cope with global issues.

In this context, Japan must enhance more active international cooperation in close collaboration with the United Nations and other players. We must strengthen our role in the international standard-setting body, as well as in the decision-making processes on global issues; the United Nations Security Council may be one example of the latter. We are hoping to be a frontrunner in the world community in the 21st century by committing ourselves to sharing these responsibilities.

A majority of people in Japan now feels that our constitution should be amended. An increasing number of Japanese look forward to Japan taking on positive roles on the international front. That said, the draft constitution formulated by the Liberal Democratic Party has maintained the current first clause of Article 9, which renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. I believe that Japan's commitment to peace, which has been made after the traumatic experiences of the mid-20th century will never change in the years to come.

In this sense, I hope that the US will continue to maintain its interest not only in Japan and China but also in the Asian region as a whole, and will actively be engaged in frameworks for cooperation with the Asian countries. In particular, Japan intends to manage the EAS as a transparent and open forum, and hopes that the US would pay more attention to the EAS, since I believe the key is to achieve open and transparent Asia.

My third point has to do with Japan–China relations. Unfortunately more people nowadays are concerned about Japan's relationship with China. @One could raise the issue that sovereign nations do not@appreciate being guided from others, however well-intentioned. And yet, by no@means should we allow disputes about the past to negatively impact our future.@

Japan hopes to build a future-oriented relationship with China. The amount of trade between Japan and China has surpassed that of Japan and the US. In addition, people to people exchange between Japan and China has reached a level exceeding four million people per year. Intra-regional trade in Asia has surpassed inter-regional trade with other regions. With these backgrounds, we hope to further deepen exchanges between Japan and China, as well as among other Asian countries. It is first and foremost necessary to create an environment conducive to a dialogue between the two countries, so that each country can have a better understanding of the other.

In this context, I should touch upon the importance of easing military tension in Northeast Asia. China's military expansion and the nontransparent nature of its military spending can have a large impact on the security environment of the region. On the other hand, Japan and the US are strengthening our alliance through, for example, the realignment of US Forces in Japan in a transparent way.@Seen from the Chinese perspective, they may believe that a strengthened Japan–US alliance is targeted toward China, and for that very reason, China too must steadily reinforce their military power.

Interestingly enough, similar situations could be found in the area of economic policy, that is, Chinese foreign exchange policy of Renminbi. Less transparent and less flexible foreign exchange policy taken by China has negative impact on the global imbalance of capital and trade flow and at the same time it gives unnecessary speculation in the financial markets.

What is lacking here is more coordinated effort among the three countries for confidence building both in the military and economic policy. The shared confidence could realize the new 21 century order in Northeast Asia which is consistent with a peaceful rising China. For that purpose, democracy, transparency and the rule of law must be well-established in China.

In addition, perhaps we should pursue the route of paving the grounds for a frank discussion among non-governmental actors. And in this regard, the track two dialogues such as the Japan-US-China Trilateral Conference will be an extremely important.

There are various possibilities and issues inherent to the relations among Japan, the US and China. Perhaps the road for its development may not be flat. However, mutual dependence and exchanges among these three countries have deepened to an irreversible level. China, in addition to Japan and the US, have come to greatly impact what goes on around the world, not to mention the Asia Pacific region alone. Therefore, it is important for us three countries to cooperate with each other to ensure peace and prosperity of the world, as positive-sum partners and not as competitive rivals. A trilateral discussion may shed light on a path to a solution of an issue which seemed impossible to be resolved in a bilateral context.

In closing my remarks, allow me to express my hope that this conference will lead to fruitful and thought-provoking discussion on what Japan, the US and China should do in the future, respectively, bilaterally and through trilateral cooperation, for the benefit of the entire international community. I think I already gave you too many word to help your digestion for our enjoyable dinner, so let me stop.

Thank you.