Japan many be among the most long-standing and consistent foreign partners Central Asian states have today, yet little is publicly mentioned about its role. In recent years great power competition in the region is headlined typically by the Russia-China competition. It was Tokyo, however, that was the first foreign partner to introduce a C5+1 style cooperation format. A Fact Sheet put out by the US Department of State earlier this year discusses the C5+1 but does not mention Japan’s effort. Instead it touts it as Washington’s dialogue format with the region. The United States’ C5+1 diplomatic platform jointly engages all five Central Asian governments (Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan). Today, the Japanese Foreign Ministry has its own Central Asia plus Japan Dialogue as a political initiative to promote inter-regional cooperation between the five Central Asian states and Japan, with the goal to create “a new framework for cooperation, thereby elevating relations between Japan and Central Asia to a new level.” There are advantages for cooperation with Tokyo in Central Asia.
Japan is viewed as “an Asian country and can present itself as one with the region; at the same time, it is an economic success story and embodies Western capitalistic and democratic values,” according to Paul Goble of the Jamestown Foundation. He says that Tokyo can be more effective in promoting Western values because the country is seen as “one of their own, rather than an outsider.” Japan also plays an important regional role in technology transfer and as an educational and labor migration destination for Central Asians, according to a Carnegie Endowment for Peace Report. What is Japan’s role in Central Asia’s multilateral foreign policy? Its presence provides an opportunity for the Central Asian states to diversify and decolonize their relationships with the world at large. Japan, notes Goble, works quietly on smaller soft power projects to avoid conflict with the great powers competing for regional influence while promoting moves toward more democratic political arrangements. Its economic size supports efforts to finance projects it supports in the five Central Asian states.
“Tokyo has also been successful because it has been conceptually flexible to a degree many have not fully appreciated,” says Goble. Few media outlets give Japan, not China, credit as the first to use the term “new silk road” to discuss east-west cooperation with Central Asian countries, according to a December 2008 article in Silk Road Studies. Japan takes a holistic approach to the region, holding more C5+1 format meetings than almost any other nation-state. Nikolay Murashkin and Eriks Varpahovskis, writing in the Journal of Eurasian Studies last summer, argue that Japan’s emphasis is on its potential to serve as a development model for Central Asian state, “which embarked on post-socialist transition to the market economy and were contemplating various modernization scenarios following the collapse of the USSR.” They suggest that Japan represents a non-Western model of economic catch-up development, while also being a major provider of “development assistance with approaches distinct from Western donors.”
Unlike China’s heavy-handed, predatory approach the Japanese create programs that address immediate humanitarian and economic concerns, including schools and needed transportation infrastructure. More than 100 Central Asian scholars travel to Japan annually just to study its version of Western views on humanitarian assistance and development.Marina Dmitriyeva, a specialist on international relations at Russia’s Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, writes in CyberLenika, that “Tokyo’s activity in the region is characterized not so much by bold initiatives as by the gradual development of practical projects, mostly focused on economic issues,” adding that “Japan presents itself as an alternative to China and Russia for the countries of Central Asia.” Tokyo’s soft power policies, she adds, promote “liberal values,” while recognizing “the special importance of Japan’s common Asian identity with the countries of the region.” Some officials in Beijing and Moscow are wary of Tokyo’s motives, as they view Japan as standing in for American power in the region. Goble argues this could lead to conflicts between Tokyo, Russia, and China in the future but, for now, Japan is quietly expanding its influence in Central Asia even if the West is not noticing.
Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.