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What is Asia for Us and Can We Be Asians? The New Asianism in Contemporary Japan*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

SIMON AVENELL*
Affiliation:
School of Culture, History and Language, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University, ACT, Australia2601 Email: simon.avenell@anu.edu.au

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the ‘New Asianism’ in Japan over the past quarter of a century. It identifies three broad trajectories or normative positions in the debate: those advocating the replication of a Japanese model in Asia, those in favour of a genuine community of equals, and those who see Asia as the only future for Japan and as a solution for the country's economic and social problems. The paper argues that the evolution and shifting prominence of each trajectory over time is indicative of the ways globalization and regionalization are impinging on imaginations of the nation and facilitating novel perspectives on East Asia in Japan. Although the nation-state is, and will probably remain, an important force behind Japan's relations in Asia for the foreseeable future, the New Asianism may be indicative of its gradual relativization and the beginning of a new, more multidimensional understanding of Asia in Japan.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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Footnotes

*

This work was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies Grant funded by the Korean Government (MEST) (AKS-2013-DZZ-3103). For their thoughtful comments and feedback on earlier drafts I thank Sunil Amrith, Cemil Aydin, Sebastian Conrad, Prasenjit Duara, Bai Gao, Engseng Ho, Keunsik Jung, Michael Kim, Carlos Rojas, Dominic Sachsenmaier, C. J. Wee Wan-ling, Jin Yan, and participants in the workshop series Regionalisms and East Asia/Critical Perspectives on Regionalism. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers for their numerous suggestions and constructive criticisms.

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18 By the mid-1990s Mahathir had all but abandoned the Look East policy and was now singing the praises of French industry. Mahathir explained that ‘We want to learn from the French, for instance, in design, sophistication, and so on. We don't want to remain bound to one source’ (i.e. Japan). Quoted in Hatch, Walter F.. (2010). Asia's Flying Geese: How Regionalization Shapes Japan. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, p. 206Google Scholar.

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20 Hein and Hammond, ‘Homing in on Asia’, p. 11. Nihonjinron refers to discourses or theories about the Japanese, especially their so-called distinctive cultural and national characteristics. See Befu, Harumi. (2001). Hegemony of Homogeneity: An Anthropological Analysis of Nihonjinron, Trans Pacific Press, MelbourneGoogle Scholar; and Dale, Peter. (2012). The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness (Routledge Revivals), Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar.

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22 Morris-Suzuki, ‘Invisible countries’, p. 14.

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36 Ibid., pp. 6–9.

37 Japanese Committee on Outlook for A New Asia. (1994). Outlook for a New Asia and Japan's Response: A Report of the Japanese Committee on Outlook for a New Asia to the Commission for a New Asia, The Commission, Kuala Lumpur, p. 5.

38 Shin’ichi Yamamuro. (1998). ‘“Ta ni shite Ichi” no Chitsujo Genri to Nihon no Sentaku’ (‘The ordering principle of “one in the many” and Japan's choice’) in ‘Ajiateki Kachi’ to wa Nanika, Tamotsu Aoki and Keishi Saeki (eds), TBS-Britannica, Tokyo, p. 48.

39 Ibid., p. 58.

41 Ibid., p. 59.

42 Ibid., p. 57.

43 Ibid., p. 55.

44 Ibid., p. 56.

45 Kaeshi Saeki, ‘Ajiateki Kachi’ wa sonzai suru ka, in Ibid., p. 40.

46 Ibid., p. 41.

47 I say provocatively-titled because Hara intentionally uses the Chinese character compound Tōa (東亜) for Asia common in wartime and prewar Japan, instead of the now-standard syllabarized Ajia (アジア). Hara, Yōnosuke. (2002). Shintōaron, NTT Shuppan Kabushiki Kaisha, TokyoGoogle Scholar.

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49 Ibid., p. 21.

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51 Ibid., p. 24.

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56 Ibid., p. 244.

57 Ibid., p. 242.

58 Ibid., p. 243.

59 Ibid., p. 60.

60 Ibid., p. 57.

61 Ibid., p. 57.

62 Ibid., p. 63.

63 Kang, Sang-jung. (1988). ‘“Nihonteki Orientarizumu” no genzai: kokusaika ni hisomu hizumi’ (‘The present of “Japanese-style Orientalism”: The distortion lurking within internationalization’), Sekai 522: 134Google Scholar.

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65 Ibid., pp. 12–13, 14.

66 Ibid., p. 26.

67 Ibid., p. 27.

68 Ibid., pp. 12–13.

69 Kazuko Mōri, Hideo Kobayashi, Tamotsu Aoki, Sang-jung Kang, Bangfu Mo, Shun’ya Yoshiki. (2003). ‘Ajiagaku no tsukurikata, Ajia no tsukurikata: “Tōyō” kara “Ajia shinseiki” e no kakyō o mezashite’ (‘Making Asian studies, making Asia: In search of a bridge between the “Orient” and the “new Asian century”’) in Aoki, et al. (eds), Ajia Shinseiki 8, p. 6.

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72 Ibid., p. 28.

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74 Wada, Shin Chiikishugi Sengen, p. 140.

75 Kang, Tōhoku Ajia, p. 33.

76 Ibid., p. 32.

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78 Wada, Shin Chiikishugi Sengen, p. 38; Kang, Tōhoku Ajia, p. 39.

79 Kang, Tōhoku Ajia, p. 40.

80 Hamashita, ‘Ajia kenkyū no genzai’, p. 6.

82 Ibid., p. 7.

83 Ibid., pp. 1–2. See, for example, Hamashita, Takeshi (ed). (1999). Higashi Ajia Sekai no Chiiki Nettowāku (Shirīzu Kokusai Kōryū, vol. 3), Kokusai Bunka Kōryū Suishin Kyōkai, TokyoGoogle Scholar; Hamashita, Takeshi. (2000). Okinawa Nyūmon: Ajia o Tsunagu Kaikyō Kōzō, Shobō, Chikuma, TokyoGoogle Scholar; Hamashita, Takeshi. (1996). Hong Kong: Ajia no Nettowāku Toshi, Shobō, Chikuma, TokyoGoogle Scholar; Hamashita, Takeshi. (1997). Chōkō Shisutemu to Kindai Ajia, Shoten, Iwanami, TokyoGoogle Scholar; Hamashita, Takeshi (Mark Selden and Linda Grove [eds]). (2008). China, East Asia and the Global Economy: Regional and Historical Perspectives (Asia's Transformations/Critical Asian Scholarship), Routledge, LondonGoogle Scholar; Hamashita, Takeshi. (2003). ‘Tribute and Treaties: Maritime Asia and Treaty Port Networks in the Era of Negotiation, 1800–1900’ in The Resurgence of East Asia: 500, 150 and 50 Year Perspectives (Asia's Transformations), Routledge, London, pp. 1750Google Scholar; Takeshi Hamashita, ‘The intra-regional system in East Asia in modern times’, in Katzenstein and Shiraishi, Network Power, pp. 113–135.

84 Hamashita, ‘Ajia kenkyū no genzai’, p. 1.

85 Hamashita, ‘The intra-regional system’, p. 115.

86 Hiraishi, ‘Kindai Nihon no Ajiashugi’, p. 266.

88 Ibid., p. 275. For discussion and a translation of this essay see Kyu Hyun Kim, ‘Tarui Tokichi's arguments on behalf of the union of the Great East, 1893’ in Saaler and Szpilman, Pan Asianism: A Documentary History 1, pp. 73–83; and Takeuchi, Ajiashugi, pp. 32–37. For the original essay see Takeuchi, Ajiashugi, pp. 106–129.

89 Hiraishi, op. cit., pp. 275–276, 278.

90 Ibid., p. 278. But, as Hiraishi honestly admits, Konoe's notion of an Asian Monroe Doctrine also had a utilitarian hue: Japan was a small, resource-poor nation but China promised to become its resource base. See Hiraishi, ‘Kindai Nihon no Ajiashugi’, p. 279. See also Aydin, The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia, pp. 54–55; and U. M. Zachmann, ‘Konoe Atsumaro and the idea of an alliance of the yellow race, 1898’ in Saaler and Szpilman, op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 85–92. For the original essay, see Takeuchi, Ajiashugi, pp. 106–129.

91 Hiraishi, ‘Kindai Nihon no Ajiashugi’, p. 281. On Okakura see Tankha, Brij, ‘Okakura Tenshin: “Asia Is One”, 1903’ in Saaler and Szpilman, Pan Asianism: A Documentary History 1, pp. 9399Google Scholar; He, Jing, ‘Okakura Tenshin and Pan-Asianism, 1903–1906’ in Saaler and Szpilman, Pan Asianism: A Documentary History 1, pp. 101111Google Scholar; Takeuchi, Ajiashugi, pp. 42–44; Duara, Prasenjit. (2010). ‘Asia redux’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 69 (4): 969973CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Tankha, Brij (ed). (2008). Okakura Tenshin and Pan-Asianism: Shadows of the Past, Brill Global Oriental, LeidenGoogle Scholar.

92 Hiraishi, ‘Kindai Nihon no Ajiashugi’, p. 281.

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95 Ibid., pp. 77, 86.

96 Ibid., p. 105.

97 Ibid., pp. 90–91.

98 Takashi Shiraishi ‘Japan and Southeast Asia’ in Katzenstein and Shiraishi, Network Power, p. 171.

99 Hatch, Asia's Flying Geese, p. 72.

100 Ibid., p. 101.

101 Ibid., p. 143.

102 Okuda Hiroshi. (1999). Ajia Keizai Saisei Misshon’ Hōkokusho: 21 Seiki no Ajia to Kyōsei suru Nippon o Mezashite (Report of the Mission for Revitalization of Asian Economy: Living in Harmony with Asia in the Twenty-first Century): http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/asiakeizai/saisei/index.html (for the Japanese version) and http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/asia/mission99/report/index.html (for the English version), [Both accessed 7 February 2014).

103 Noble, ‘Japanese and American perspectives’, p. 257.

104 Okuda, Ajia Keizai Saisei Misshon, Preface.

105 Morishima, Michio. (1995). Nihon no Sentaku, Shoten, Iwanami, TokyoGoogle Scholar; Morishima, Michio (1999). Naze Nihon wa Botsuraku suru ka, Shoten, Iwanami, TokyoGoogle Scholar; Morishima, Michio. (2001). Nihon ni Dekiru Koto wa Nanika: Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai o Teian suru, Iwanami Shoten, TokyoGoogle Scholar. Also see, in English: Morishima, Michio. (2001). Collaborative Development in Northeast Asia, Palgrave, New YorkGoogle Scholar. Morishima was telling a different story in the early 1980s: Morishima, Michio. (1984). Why Has Japan ‘Succeeded’?: Western Technology and the Japanese Ethos, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UKGoogle Scholar.

106 Morishima, Naze Nihon, p. viii.

107 These characterizations of devastation correspond to chapters in Morishima's 1999 book, Naze Nihon.

108 National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA). (2010). Higashi Ajia no Chiiki Renkei o Kyōka suru, Sōgō Kenkyū Kaihatsu Kikō, Tokyo, p. 10.

109 Ibid., p. 11.

110 Ibid.

111 Ibid., p. 10.

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113 Itō and Tanaka, Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai, p. 50.

114 The EAVG submitted its report on East Asian community to the APT Secretariat in 2001. See East Asia Vision Group. (2001). Towards an East Asian Community: Region of Peace, Prosperity, and Progress: http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/report2001.pdf [Accessed, 7 February 2014].

115 Kohara, Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai, p. 293.

116 Ibid., p. 294.

117 The Council on East Asian Community (CEAC). (2005). The State of the Concept of East Asian Community and Japan's Strategic Response thereto, The Council on East Asian Community, Tokyo, p. 7. Also see Kohara, Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai, pp. 293–298.

118 CEAC, The State of the Concept of East Asian Community, p. 7.

119 Kohara, Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai, p. iv.

120 Ibid., pp. 253–254. Although they are by no means mainstream, it is also worth noting some of the more fantastic proposals for East Asian Community. Morishima Michio, for example, proposes the creation of a United States of East Asia (USEA). See Morishima, Nihon ni Dekiru Koto, p. 189. In terms of international politics, former Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Taniguchi Makoto sees Asia creating a ‘third global standard’ and becoming one ‘pillar’ in a ‘tri-polar global new order’. As examples, Taniguchi foresees Japan, China, and India becoming an ‘Asian presence’ as permanent members on the United Nations Security Council. Similarly, he imagines Japanese, Chinese, and Indians pooling their combined economic might to influence operations of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. See Taniguchi, Makoto. (2004). Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai: Keizai Tōgō no Yukue to Nihon, Shoten, Iwanami, Tokyo, pp. 218219Google Scholar.

121 Shiraishi, Takashi. (2000). ‘Ajia o dō kangaeru ka’, Chūō Kōron 115 (5): 71Google Scholar. International relations scholar Yamakage Susumu makes a similar point: ‘Japan is not at a crossroads where it must choose between Asia and the United States. The relationship between Asian countries and the United States is not in crisis. . . .’ And, ‘Japan should avoid being forced to choose between Asia and the United States. It is in Japan's interest to promote cooperative institutions that embrace both sides of the Pacific. See Susumu Yamakage, ‘Japan's National Security and Asia-Pacific's Regional Institutions in the Post-Cold War Era’ in Katzenstein and Shiraishi, Network Power, pp. 300–301.

122 Shiraishi, ‘Japan and Southeast Asia’, p. 170.

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125 Ibid., p. 35.

126 Ibid., p. 35; and Shiraishi, ‘Higashi Ajia Chiiki Shisutemu’, p. 88.

127 Itō, op. cit., p. 14.

128 Yamakage, op. cit., p. 301.

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130 Ibid., p. 22.

131 Funabashi, Yoichi. (1993). ‘The Asianization of Asia’, Foreign Affairs 72 (5), p. 75CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

132 Ibid., 77.

133 Ibid., pp. 75, 78.

134 Ibid., pp. 84–85.

135 Morris-Suzuki, ‘Invisible countries’, p. 11.

136 Funabashi, ‘The Asianization of Asia’, p. 78.

137 Shiraishi, ‘Japan and Southeast Asia’, p. 192.

138 T. J. Pempel, ‘Transpacific torii: Japan and the emerging Asian regionalism’, in Katzenstein and Shiraishi, Network Power, p. 51. Not all agreed. As Yamakage Susumu argued in the same volume, ‘There is a vital shortcoming in this proposal. If relationships deteriorate, few governments, if any, in Asia will trust or want Japan to mediate between the United States and themselves. They believe that they can deal with Americans as well as, and probably better than, the Japanese’. Yamakage, Japan's National Security, p. 301.

139 One group not discussed in this paper consists of those who reject processes of East Asian community-building and regional integration outright. See Noble, Japanese and American perspectives, pp. 253–255 for an excellent analysis of these antagonistic positions. A recent example is Watanabe, Toshio. (2008). Shin Datsu A Ron, Shunjū, Bungei, TokyoGoogle Scholar.

140 Nevertheless, some Japanese advocates of East Asian community have begun to think about creating a legal infrastructure, going so far as to draft an ‘East Asian Community Constitution’ (Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai Kenshō). See Nakamura, Tamio, Usui, Yōichirō, and Satō, Yoshiaki, Suami, Takao. (2008). Higashi Ajia Kyōdōtai Kenshōan, Shōwadō, KyotoGoogle Scholar.

141 On public opinion see Duus, ‘The New Asianism’, pp. 251–255, and Noble, Japanese and American perspectives, pp. 258–259.

142 Terry, How Asia Got Rich, p. 6.

143 Ibid., p. 16.

144 Noble, ‘Japanese and American perspectives’, p. 252.

145 Ching, Leo. (2000). ‘Globalizing the regional, regionalizing the global: mass culture and Asianism in the age of late capital’, Public Culture 12 (1): 257CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

146 Rahim, ‘In search of the “Asian way”’, pp. 60–61.

147 Uemura, Ajia wa ‘Ajiateki’ Ka, pp. 269–70.

148 Ibid., p. 266.

149 Ibid., p. 269.