Country Study: Japan and Russia (29th March 2006)

Résumé du document

Japan and Russia are two important powers in the world, leaving quite close to each other. Its geographical position should be an asset in its relationship with Asia as a whole. Its territory is 17,075,200 km2 for a population of 143 millions according to the American CIA. Not only has Russia a large territory, but it is also quite rich in natural resources: "oil, natural gas, coal, and many strategic minerals, timber."
As for Japan, it is considered as the first economic power in Asia with a GDP of $3.867 trillion in 2005 and a GDP per capita $30,400.

Extraits

[...] The pillar on peace treaty seems purely rhetoric as it states once again the need for a peace treaty while nothing has really been initiated. Similarly, the third pillar about political dialogue implies meeting between the governments and exchanges for the members of Parliament. The fourth pillar appears more concrete as it is linked to special events such as the Japanese Culture Festival in Russia in 2003. It favours individual or youth exchanges although we may wonder to what extent. [...]

[...] In January 2003, Koizumi visited Russia. He and Putin “confirmed the political will to conclude a peace treaty as soon as possible through resolution of the issue of where the Four Islands belong, thus fully normalizing relations and agree to accelerate negotiations to that end, including negotiations at the summit level.”[11] Three documents should be the basis for the conflict resolution: the 1956 Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration, the 1993 Tokyo Declaration and the 2001 Irkutsk Declaration.The 1993 Tokyo Declaration identifies the territory issue and the basis for the peace-treaty. [...]

[...] This might be the main reason since the islands do not have many natural resources while the Russian have plenty of them on the continent. As for the Japanese, they consider the islands and especially Shikotan and Habomai as part of their already small territory. Moreover, Japan needs the exclusive exploitation zone as it consumes a lot of maritime products and has to import them. The Kuril Islands are thus an everlasting problem that has consequences in other fields of cooperation and relationships. [...]

[...] Japan and Russia began to normalise their relationships in 1986 with Gorbatchev's Perestroika. So we are dealing with freshly reborn diplomatic links. Still, in comparison with other powers' relationship with Russia, Japan is a particular example of lack of cooperation. Indeed, in a global world, we could expect two important economic powers to cooperate. More interconnectedness between them could be profitable for both as they have a central role and place in North East Asian. But actually patterns in both countries undermine Russia and Japan's relationship and in first place the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands in the North of Japan. [...]

[...] However, it does not account for the gap between Russia and the other countries. The territorial dispute and the societal gap resulting from it might explain why FDI is so low. That is the policy of Seikei Fukabun which means that no trade can develop because of political problems. Japan's trade with Russia is far less than with the other countries of the G8 as the tables in annexe show it. For example, in 2005, Japan exported an amount of ¥495 trillion to Russia and imported ¥682 trillion from her. [...]