Japan once had a high profile in Washington, DC, but in recent years it has been eclipsed by China and South Korea. Washington is not just the centre of the US government — it also plays a substantial global role in its own right. The IMF, the World Bank, and even the Asian Development Bank have major offices here in Washington. The many think tanks, law firms and mass media organisations here have an impact far beyond American shores. I think this is truer now than it was 10 years ago, or even five years ago.
Often the impact is not only, or not primarily, on the US government, but on other governments elsewhere. High standing in Washington can enhance the credibility of one nation against another. There is increasing competition in this regard among several Asian countries, including Japan, China, and South Korea. Washington has become a battlefield among Asian nations over current issues, such as the Senkakus, Takeshima, exchange rates, abductees and the comfort women issue.
However, just as the Koreans and the Chinese began opening organisations that are now influential in Washington, many Japan-related ones were closed. Korea and China have been steadily strengthening their presence in Washington, while Japan has been moving in the opposite direction.
The Japan Economic Institute, a Foreign Ministry organisation, closed its office in 2001 because the days of the trade wars were over. The Keizai Koho Centre of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) closed their office in 2009.
In contrast, the Korea Economic Institute, which had opened a small and relatively inactive office in the 1980s, began to expand its operation in 2002, moving into an office once occupied by Henry Kissinger.
In 2012, the Korean government bought another property in Washington on Logan Circle to promote Korean culture. The building itself is closely tied with historical issues, as it used to be the Korean Embassy until Korea’s ownership of the building was lost to Japan in 1910 after the Russo-Japanese War.
Problems with Japan’s diplomacy
Japan has many excellent diplomats. I don’t mean to criticise them, because they have generally been very active. However, they also have to take care of many visitors from Tokyo. Many officials of the Japanese Embassy in Washington rise to senior positions back in Tokyo, so it’s quite important for them to do a good job and provide good input to their seniors and prime ministers. As a result, their business is very demanding.
But in recent years the leadership in Japan has changed so much. There were six prime ministers in a row after Junichiro Koizumi, each with no more than a year in office. It was very unstable, so the bureaucrats didn’t know which direction to go and often had inadequate budgets to promote Japan’s interests. The way I see it, it became even more important for them to develop ties with Tokyo than to focus on developments in Washington.
That is when the Chinese and the Koreans expanded their standing. I can’t help but think the Chinese have been quite strategic. I suspect they might have seen some of the problems that continuing political change in Japan was creating for Japanese diplomacy. Interestingly, in 2009 the Chinese government created a huge new programme with almost $1 billion (Dh 3.67 billion) for public diplomacy and it was centred primarily in Washington. The CCTV network set up a 100-person bureau for the Americas.
The Chinese government reaches out to ordinary Americans, and this is one reason it has grown more confident, or perhaps more aggressive, on the Senkakus issue — they have so much firepower and such an active information mechanism in Washington. And from the American point of view, they are nonthreatening, and simply trying to inspire trust and friendliness.
There are now about four million Chinese-Americans in the US and two million Korean-Americans. This is worth stressing, and is another reason why the history issue can be quite delicate in the US. In the last five years, Chinese immigration has increased greatly. The number of Chinese-Americans of higher income has also risen. The Chinese Embassy has been very conscious of this.
There is a section called the “compatriots department” in the Chinese Embassy, which is responsible for relations with the Chinese-American ethnic community. There is nothing even similar in the Japanese Embassy. China has the largest embassy in Washington, with almost 200 people. The Japanese Embassy has 106.
South Korea also has visibility and influence in Washington. Even though Japan’s population is double Korea’s and its GDP must be about triple that of Korea, the Koreans appear to be spending more money in Washington. Also, Korea seems to have a much more efficient operation in terms of the visibility and influence they get for their money.
In the case of the comfort women crisis, it was not the Korean Embassy that got involved; it was the Korean-American community that was most active. Their advertising was mostly free through Amnesty International and other human rights groups. In contrast, some conservative groups in Japan placed an advertisement in the Washington Post to tell their side of this issue, and my understanding is that they paid $30,000. Meanwhile, the Koreans were receiving their publicity for free. It’s a very interesting story.
Diet reform crucial
Japan could do more on Capitol Hill. Before, when Ambassador Nobuo Matsunaga was in Washington, Japan stressed Capitol Hill and did a fine job on congressional relations, but now it has been deemphasised. Recently a Japan caucus was set up in the US Congress, but I have not seen much significant activity.
Another important factor is the restrictions that Diet interpellations place on Japanese politicians and top-level bureaucrats. Japanese leaders make only brief visits to Washington, and they all come together. This is necessary because of the interpellations. While the Chinese president can travel overseas for several weeks, the Japanese prime minister can’t travel freely. Japanese ministers either come during holiday periods or travel enmasse when the Diet is not in session. Former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld once took a picture with 50 members of the Diet at the same time.
When the Diet is in session, politicians and key bureaucrats are unable to travel and this undermines Japanese diplomacy, especially compared to China or South Korea, whose leaders aren’t tethered by the need to appear at interpellations.
I believe Diet reform is crucial to Japan’s national interests. In general, I think the lines of reform that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is stressing are positive: more attention to Washington, more financial support for public diplomacy, and Diet reform so that Japanese leaders can travel more freely and develop networks. Another problem is that Japanese diplomacy tends to operate in a classic, in some ways rigid, style that is tightly focused on the State Department. I think this focus is too narrow. The problem is broader, so Japan needs more exposure and broader networks.
China’s soft power capability has risen very fast in the last five years — this is one of the challenges for Japan. The Chinese capacity rose and their intentions began to widen just as the period of disarray occurred in Japanese policymaking, with a rapid succession of prime ministers and uncertainty while the DPJ was in power. It was difficult for Japan to respond in the middle of that situation, and the Chinese pulled ahead. The last five years have produced a new world of public diplomacy and a new set of challenges. In a way, the Senkakus are just the tip of the iceberg. Japanese people both in the government and among the public should think more about the relationship between Asia and Washington.
I believe in US-Japan relations. I don’t believe Japan’s time is over and I don’t think that it is in America’s interest for Japan to decline. I would like to see Japan become stronger in Washington and use that leverage across the world.
— Washington Post
Kent Calder is director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies in Washington. He served as a special adviser to two US ambassadors to Japan, Walter Mondale and Thomas Foley (1996-99). He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1979, where he was a student of Ambassador Reischauer.