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The Anatomy of Japan's South African Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Jun Morikawa
Jun Morikawa
Affiliation:
Lecturer in International Relations, Tokai University, Tokyo
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Extract

What is Japan's basic policy towards South Africa? According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo:

Japan, which firmly supports the self-determination of the African people and strongly opposes racial discrimination, has earnestly desired a solution to the problems in southern Africa.

Japan strongly condemns the continuation of racial discrimination in South Africa and has demanded that the Government of South Africa abolish such discrimination. From this standpoint, Japan maintains no diplomatic relations with South Africa and has prohibited such direct investment as the establishment of joint ventures by Japanese firms in that country. Furthermore it has imposed restrictions on cultural, educational and sport exchanges between Japanese and South Africans, respecting the relevant United Nations resolutions.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 1984 , pp. 133 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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References

page 133 note 1 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan and Africa South of the Sahara (Tokyo, 1979), p. 4.Google Scholar

page 133 note 2 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Waga Gaiko no Kinkyo (Tokyo, 1961), p. 136. It should be noted that this agreement was reached a year after the Sharpeville deaths and two weeks before South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth.Google Scholar

page 133 note 3 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gaimusho (Tokyo, 1980), p. 140, classifies South Africa as a nation which in legal terms has a Japanese embassy.Google Scholar

page 134 note 1 According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of 16 November 1982 there were only 11 Japanese embassy officials in Lagos and 12 in Nairobi. By way of contrast, the Springbok Newsletter (Johannesburg), 16 01 1980, published by the Nippon Club of South Africa, reported that as many as 66 Japanese officials and their families were living in the Republic in 1979.Google Scholar

page 134 note 2 Financial Mail (Johannesburg), 19 11 1982, special supplement on Japan.Google Scholar

page 134 note 3 The figures in this section were compiled from O.E.C.D. trade statistics.

page 134 note 4 ‘An Exchange Note Between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Republic of South Africa Concerning Reciprocal Exemption from Taxation of Income Derived from Shipping and Air Traffic’, signed in Tokyo, 21 October 1968.

page 134 note 5 Although the handbook Africa Binran (Tokyo, 1980), published by the Public Information and Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, p. 101, claims that Japan contributes humanitarian aid to the victims of apartheid through various U.N. funds, it neglects to mention that this amounted to only $390,000 in 1980 – a sum that can sadly be compared with the corresponding trade figure for the same year.

page 134 note 6 Japan's exports to Nigeria totalled $1,493,605,000 in 1980, while her imports amounted to only $120,172,000.

page 134 note 7 Kitazawa, Yoko, Watashi no Naka no Africa (Tokyo, 1979), p. 266, claims that these restrictions were imposed as part of the Government's lobbying activities at the United Nations in the hope of getting the African votes necessary to replace Indonesia in the Security Council in 1975.Google Scholar

page 135 note 1 According to Africa Binran, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discourages but does not prohibit those who wish to arrange exchange visits to the Republic. After 1974 Tokyo introduced measures to restrict South Africans by refusing entrance visas, but this is carried out on a ‘case by case’ basis.

page 135 note 2 Figures provided by the Tokyo office of the South African Tourist Corporation.

page 135 note 3 Revised By-Laws of the Nippon Club of South Africa, 19 December 1979, p. 1.

page 135 note 4 It should be noted that this decision was made against the background of the defeat of Portuguese colonialism in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.

page 135 note 5 According to the Springbok Newsletter, October 1981, the Japanese Government provides 66·5 per cent of the total operating costs, the business community in Tokyo raises 11·6 per cent, and 21·9 per cent comes from tuition.

page 135 note 6 Ibid. 19 May 1982, reported that construction would cost ¥355,400,000: the Japanese Government would provide ¥229,000,000, the business community in Tokyo ¥ 120,000,000, and the Nippon Club ¥ 6,400,000.

page 136 note 1 See ‘The Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement Between the United States and Japan, March 8, 1954’, in United States Treaties and Other International Agreements, Vol. V, Part I, 1954, (Washington, D.C., 1955), p. 669.Google Scholar

page 136 note 2 See ‘The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan, January 19, 1960’, in ibid. Vol. II, Part II, 1960 (Washington, D.C., 1961), pp. 1633–4.

page 136 note 3 In terms of G.N.P., Japan became the second biggest economic power in the western world in 1968.

page 136 note 4 The concept of minsei antei is described in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sekai no Ugoki (Tokyo), 398, 1982, p. 28.

page 137 note 1 According to Ryuichi Ishii, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry's Second African Division, ‘The basic policy when deciding which countries to help is to respond to specific requests… We try to help the poorest countries first. Also we look at the country's political relationship with Japan. And we are a member of the Western bloc so the West's interests are important.’ Africa Economic Digest (London), 10 12 1982, p. 12. So far economic determinism has been strongly emphasised in studies of Japan's South African policy, and the importance of political concerns has been frequently overlooked or underestimated.Google Scholar

page 137 note 2 Kitazawa, Yoko, ‘From Tokyo to Johannesburg: a study of Japan's growing economic links with the Republic of South Africa’, Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility of the National Council of Churches of Christ, 1975, p. 41.Google Scholar

page 137 note 3 See Japan External Trade Organisation, Africa Business Guide (Tokyo, 1979), Tables 5–18, p. 305.Google Scholar

page 138 note 1 Industrial Iron and Steel Corporation, Economic and Market Information on Japan: an economic study (Johannesburg, 1971), p. 31.Google Scholar

page 138 note 2 For details, see Kitazawa's excellent study ‘From Tokyo to Johannesburg’.

page 138 note 3 Cf. South Africa Department of Information, This Is South Africa (Pretoria, 1979), p. 3.Google ScholarYoshio Hatano, Director-General of the Foreign Ministry's Middle East and African Bureau, has expressed a similar viewpoint; see the translated report of his address to Keidanren's Committee on African Co-operation in Africa (Tokyo), 23, 5, May 1983.Google Scholar

page 139 note 1 ‘The great source of Communist strength in South Africa at the present time is the restrictive and often repressive treatment of Natives.’ Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950. The Near East, South Asia and Africa, Vol. V (Washington, D.C., 1979), p. 1835.Google Scholar

page 139 note 2 It was echoed in a message during January 1983 from Alhaji Yusuf Maitama-Sule, Chairman of the U.N. Special Committee Against Apartheid, to the Tokyo Symposium on the Struggle against Apartheid.

page 139 note 3 See Halliday, Jon, A Political History of Japanese Capitalism (New York, 1975), pp. 98 and 345. It should be noted that Japan has yet to sign the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination adopted by the U.N. General Assembly on 21 December 1965.Google Scholar

page 140 note 1 Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, Minami Afurika Boeki Jijo [The Trade Situation in South Africa] (Tokyo, 1917), p. 26.Google Scholar

page 140 note 2 Oyama, Ujiro, ‘Nan A no Yushokujin Haiseki to Nihonjin Nyukoko Mondai [South Africa's Racial Discrimination and the Japanese Entry Problem], in Gaiko Jiho (Tokyo), 56–4, 623, 1930, pp. 22–3.Google Scholar

page 140 note 3 Japan Rubber Products Export Association, Research Report No. 8, Minami Afurika Rempo [The Union of South Africa] (Tokyo, 1937), pp. 6–15. South Africa's exports to Japan amounted to only £87,000 in 1929, but by 1936 they had risen to £2,335,000, thereby ranking third after Britain and France. During the same period, imports from Japan had increased from £1,400,000 to £3,065,000, behind Britain, the United States, and France.Google Scholar

page 141 note 1 According to Nishizawa, Kenichiro, Consul-General in Pretoria, in the Springbok Newsletter, 22 January 1974, in order to avoid unjust criticisms of a reported expansion of trade with South Africa, Japan should clarify its position in the U.N. and extend economic aid to black Africa.Google Scholar

page 141 note 2 Unfavourable Japanese views of black people are revealed by Wagatsuma, Hiroshi and Yoneyama, Toshinao, Henken no Kozo: Nihonjin no Jinshukan [The Structure of Prejudice: Japanese views on race] (Tokyo, 1967), pp. 93–113.Google Scholar

page 141 note 3 The field of ‘African Studies’ began to expand in Japan during the early 1960s, and an increased knowledge of socio-economic and political developments has grown in recent years. For the history of the Japanese anti-apartheid movement, see Japan Anti-Apartheid Committee, Africa: news and reports (Tokyo), 22, 11 1979, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar