Among the news items and analyses from this week, two articles place welcome emphasis on how one of China’s most direct regional (and global) competitors - Japan - has been responding to Beijing’s burgeoning Belt-and-Road-Initiative (BRI)-led external projection. First, a Foreign Policy report [Japan’s Own Belt and Road] stresses Tokyo’s recent push to establish and consolidate international partnerships and investments, which can be explained as a proactive attempt to avoid being marginalised in the Asia-Pacific as a result of China’s soaring engagement. This is especially crucial given the more ‘withdrawn’ regional approach taken by the United States since the outset of the Trump administration. Thus, it should also not come as a surprise that Japan has been seeking to strengthen its ties with China’s other main regional rival, India. Tokyo and New Delhi have launched multi-billion investment plans, and have in general been trying to join forces to present themselves as credible alternatives to China’s BRI across Asia and beyond, even jointly promoting the so-called Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, an outgrowth of Abe’s own plan meant to deepen the economic connections between Africa and South and Southeast Asia.
The geopolitically strategic nature of Japan’s renewed ‘enthusiasm’ for external endeavours finds further evidence in Tokyo’s sharply increasing investments in Turkey [Japanese investment on the rise in Turkey]. There, Japanese firms have been steadily stepping up and diversifying their investment portfolios, with a focus on consumer products ranging from air conditioners to automobiles. Turkey’s appeal can be ascribed to two main reasons. First, Turkey is in itself a large and growing market, and therefore offers excellent opportunities to Japanese firms that would otherwise be stuck in their sluggish domestic market. Second, and more relevant for the broader geo-economic picture, Turkey can function as a key regional production hub, helping Japan establish a stronger presence in the area and therefore making it more competitive vis-à-vis other very active Eurasian economic actors such as China. For the time being, Chinese and Japanese investments in the area have been focusing on different sectors (infrastructure vs consumer goods), but if the upward trend continues from both sides a more competitive - and potentially confrontational - scenario is more than likely to materialise.
Francesco S. Montesano
This week's Silk Road Headlines
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