Preface
Despite
the trend of regionalism that had been revealing itself throughout the
world, it was often said that East Asia was an exception. Common wisdom
told us that East Asia was comprised of various political systems, levels
of economic development, cultures, religions, and individual national
histories. And therefore it was said that the creation of a multilateral
framework was difficult, and that there was no possibility of achieving
a regional integration process like the European Union.
There
has recently been, however, a gigantic dynamism of regional integration
in East Asia, especially after the experience of the 1997 economic and
financial crisis in the region. The first ASEAN+3 Summit meeting created
an opportunity to enhance such a trend, which was accelerated by the agreement
at its 2000 meeting to form an "East Asian Summit" in the near
future and to envisage a future "East Asian Community." Now
we see a lot of proposals concerning not only monetary-financial and trade-investment
cooperation, but even politico-security cooperation in the region.
It
is in concert with this background of emerging regional cooperation in
East Asia that the Japan Forum on International Relations (JFIR) has worked
on a project called "Japan in Asia" for the last two years.
Keeping in mind the achievements of last year's "Asia as a Political
System" followed this year by the theme of "Asia as Economic
System", we have arranged our agenda according to short-term and
medium-term perspectives, thereby continuing our dialogue with our Asian
neighbors on the direction of regional cooperation in East Asia and Japan's
specific role in it.
This
year, the Japanese Study Group headed by Professor Yamazawa Ippei held
research meetings and made "field trip to countries in Asia",
publishing a report entitled "Japan in Asia: Asia as Economic System
(as printed herein)." An international workshop was organized to
put the finishing touch on this "Dialogue with Asia." Prof.
Ajanant Juanji, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Economics at Chulalongkorn
University in Thailand, Mr. Xu Changwen, Director of the Department of
Asian-Pacific Studies in the Academy of International Trade and Economic
Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce in China, and Prof. Rhyu Sang-Young,
Professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University
in Korea, participated in the workshop as the panelists from Asia.
At
the workshop, 87 participants on the floor of the workshop, including
members of JFIR, took part in discussions after the three Asian panelists
presented their responses to the Study Group's report on "Japan in
Asia: Asia as Economic System." Though a printed version of the report
will be made available only to a restricted number of people such as members
of JFIR, a full text of the report will be available on the website of
JFIR (http://www.jfir.or.jp).
We
would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Nippon
Foundation, which generously supported this project, and the cooperation
of the Yomiuri Shimbun.
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Ito Kenichi
President & CEO
The Japan Forum on International Relations