(MENAFN- Asia Times) In mid-April, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs released its
diplomatic bluebook 2023 , its most important guidebook on international affairs. Japan's foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, wrote the foreword, which begins:“The world is now at a turning point in history.”

This phrase is key to understanding the Japanese approach to the war in Ukraine.

Hours after Russian forces entered Ukraine, the Japanese government signed the Group of Seven statement that condemned the“large-scale military aggression” and called for“severe and coordinated economic and financial sanctions.”

The next day, Hayashi
announced
that Japan would sanction“designated individuals related to Russia,” freeze assets of three Russian banks, and sanction exports to Russia's military.

In its
Diplomatic Bluebook 2022, Japan
condemned
Russia and urged the Russian government to“withdraw its troops immediately, and comply with international law.” Russia's war, the Japanese argued,“shakes the very foundation of the international order,” an order whose attrition, as the new
Bluebook
argues, has brought the world to this“turning point.”

National interests

Despite all the talk of sanctions, Japan continues to import energy from Russia. In 2022, 9.5% of Japan's imported liquefied natural gas came from Russia (up from 8.8% in 2021). Most of this energy came from Russia's Sakhalin Island, where Japanese companies and the government have made substantial investments .

In July 2022, Hayashi was asked about Japan's continued imports from Sakhalin-2. His
answer
was clear:“Sakhalin-2 is an important project for energy security, including the stable supply of electricity and gas in Japan.”

Since July, Japan's officials have
continued
to emphasize Japan's national interests, including through the Sakhalin-2 natural-gas project, over its obligations to the G7 and to its own statements about the war.

In August 2022, the Japanese government asked two private companies, Mitsui and Mitsubishi, to deepen involvement in Russia's Sakhalin-2:“We will respond by working with the public and private sectors to protect the interests of the companies and secure [a] stable supply of liquefied natural gas,”
said
former minister of economy, trade and industry Kōichi Hagiuda.

In March 2022, Kyodo News
reported
that a leaked version of the
Diplomatic Bluebook 2022
used a rather startling phrase,“illegal occupation,” to describe Russian control over islands north of Hokkaido. The Japanese government had not used that
phrase
since 2003, largely because of increased diplomatic activity between Japan and Russia driven by the collaboration over the development of Sakhalin-2.

As it turned out, the draft that Kyodo News had seen was altered so that the official diplomatic bluebook
of 2022 did not use this phrase. Instead, the
Bluebook
noted that the“greatest concern between Japan and Russia is the Northern Territories issue,” which“is yet to be resolved.”

Japan could have taken advantage of the Western animosity against Russia to press its claim on these islands, but instead, the government merely expressed hope that Russia would withdraw from Ukraine and return to“negotiations on a peace treaty” regarding the islands north of Japan.

Three new points

The
diplomatic bluebook 2023
makes three important points: that the post-Cold War era has ended, that China is Japan's“greatest strategic challenge” (page 43), and that Global South countries must be taken seriously. The
Bluebook
highlights Japan's confusion, caught between its reliance on Russian energy and the growing confidence of the Global South.

The
Bluebook
from 2022 noted,“The international community is currently undergoing an era-defining change.” Now, however, the
Bluebook 2023
points to the“end of the post-Cold War era” (page 3), which is illustrated by the collapse of the US-led world order (which both the United States and Japan
call
the“rules-based international order”). Washington's power has declined, but it is not clear what comes next.

Anxiety about the growing role of China in Asia is not new for Japan, which has long contested the Diaoyu (China)/Senkaku (Japan) islands. But now, there is a much more pronounced – and dangerous – assessment of the situation.

The
Bluebook 2023
notes the close alignment between China and Russia, although it does not focus on that strategic partnership. Rather, the Japanese government focuses on China, which it now sees as Japan's“greatest strategic challenge.”

Even here, the Japanese government acknowledges that the two countries“have held a series of dialogues to discuss common issues.” The“efforts of both Japan and China” are important, says the
Bluebook, to build a“constructive and stable” relationship (page 43).

Finally, the Japanese government accepts that there is a new mood in the Global South, with countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America
unwilling
to submit any longer to the will of the Western states.

In January this year, a reporter from Yomiuri Shimbun
asked
the Foreign Ministry's press secretary, Hikariko Ono, how Japan defined the“Global South.” Her tentative reply is instructive.

“The government of Japan does not have a precise definition of the term Global South,” she said, but“it is my understanding that in general, it often refers to emerging and developing countries.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she noted, must“strengthen engagement with the Global South.”

In the
Bluebook 2023, the Japanese recognize that Global South countries are not following the Western position on Ukraine and that berating the countries of the Global South raises accusations of“double standards” (wars by the West are acceptable, but wars by others are unacceptable – page 3). Japan will promote multilateralism, building“an inclusive approach that bridges differences.” A new“attitude is required,” says the
Bluebook.

In March, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine. Both sides said they were working to share security information, but Japan once more refused to send weapons to Ukraine.

A few weeks after Kishida left Ukraine, Mitsuko Shino, Japan's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations,
warned
in a guarded statement about the“risks stemming from violations of the agreements regulating the export of weapons and military equipment” and about the importance of the
arms trade treaty .

Japan remains caught in the horns of its own dilemma.

This article was produced by
globetrotter , which provided it to Asia Times.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter. He is an editor of
leftword books
and the director of
tricontinental: institute for social research . He is a senior non-resident fellow at
chongyang institute for financial studies , Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including
the darker nations
and
the poorer nations . His latest books are
struggle makes us human: learning from movements for socialism
and (with Noam Chomsky)
the withdrawal: iraq, libya, afghanistan, and the fragility of us power .

Like this:Like Loading...

MENAFN19042023000159011032ID1106041830