As China’s Pacific influence grows, Japan eyes deeper ties with island nations amid their domestic woes
- Japan has supported the region by setting up hospitals, building roads and bridges, and assisting in climate change mitigation and disaster relief
- Tokyo’s renewed focus on Pacific nations comes amid regional concern over Fukushima waste water discharge and as Chinese influence grows
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters she agreed with the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) on the importance of the “international rules-based order”.
She added that Japan would continue to provide explanations based on “scientific evidence” about the release of treated waste water from Fukushima.
The gathering aimed to lay the groundwork for the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting – held once every three years since 1997 – set to convene in Tokyo this July.
Given Japan’s attempts to understand local needs, economic development and climate change mitigation, including disaster relief, “would remain a priority”, said Kei Koga, an associate professor in the public policy and global affairs programme at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
Under Japan’s Official Security Assistance (OSA) framework launched last year, which aims to help developing nations strengthen their security, Fiji was listed as a priority country, Koga noted.
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In December, Japan agreed to provide Fiji with US$2.7 million in security assistance, including patrol boats, and in future, Tokyo was likely to use a mix of OSA and overseas development help to strengthen the capacities of regional countries, Koga said.
“[This includes] maritime domain awareness and law enforcement capabilities to ensure maritime security,” he said, adding that Japan should also address the “long-standing concern of nuclear issues” in regards to the discharge of Fukushima waste water.
“Without understanding their socially embedded concerns, it would be difficult to gain trust,” Koga said.
Over the years, Japan has supported the region by setting up and expanding hospitals, building roads and bridges, and assisting with climate change mitigation and disaster relief prevention.
Moses Sakai, a research fellow at the PNG National Research Institute, said any form of help to Pacific nations from Japan “should not be about strategic competition in the region”.
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Rather, it should be based on mutual understanding and cooperation between Japan and PIF members and the interests of the region’s people, as spelled out in the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent that was formally endorsed at a 2022 meeting in Fiji.
PIF leaders highlighted regional challenges and priorities in the strategy, ranging from climate change and ocean protection, to the sustainable management of land and ocean resources.
“The real threat at the moment to the region’s security is not geopolitics, but climate change, therefore Japan should invest more on that including other key economic development priorities,” Sakai said.
Noting that the region is prone to natural disasters as a result of climate change, Sakai said Tokyo should also invest in providing humanitarian help, especially during natural disasters.
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Pacific nations are among the most vulnerable to the changing climate, with many already experiencing higher temperatures, shifts in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels and changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events, according to Australia’s national science agency CSIRO.
Céline Pajon, head of Japan research at the French Institute of International Relations’ Centre for Asian and Indo-Pacific Studies in Paris, said Japan had taken steps to help the region adapt to climate change.
In 2018, Japan helped set up a regional centre in Samoa’s capital Apia, funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, to focus on researching and addressing climate change effects
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Chugoku Electric Power Inc. invested in expanding renewable energy in Fiji in 2021.
“Japan could follow up on these,” Pajon said, in addition to providing support on weather data and in developing information infrastructure to aid evacuations in case of a tropical cyclone.
“Japan is also expected to assist in the development of communication infrastructure, including the installation of submarine cables,” she said.
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Adding that the next likely recipient of Tokyo’s OSA funding would be Papua New Guinea, Pajon noted that the nuclear issue had been a “traditional, central irritant” in Japan’s relations and the region.
In 1981, the region protested against a Japanese project to dump nuclear waste in the ocean, while in 1992, the PIF criticised the plutonium transiting the region on the way from France to Japan.
“The stepping up of economic cooperation helped to iron out the issue for some time”, she said. But nuclear concerns once again emerged as an issue affecting relations after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Pacific countries have called for greater transparency and communication since Japan began discharging treated waste water from the plant last August.
“Tokyo is aware that the nuclear issue is very sensitive, and it is also used as a political card by some governments to criticise Japan, following China’s example,” Pajon added.
One of the most vocal opponents of the release of the waste water, China has called the discharge an “extremely selfish and irresponsible act” and accused Japan of “passing an open wound onto the future generations of humanity”.
Kalinga Seneviratne, a consultant to the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, said the discharge was “widely opposed across the Pacific” and “damaged Japan’s standing in the South Pacific”.
The few leaders who supported the discharge – on the grounds that the International Atomic Energy Agency has said it is safe – were accused by non-governmental organisations and commentators in the region of being “bribed by Japanese aid pledges”, he said.
“Unless Japan is able to find a reason to stop the discharge – which they said will be done in stages over 30 years – their reputation is going to suffer,” Seneviratne said.
“Japan is really helping China’s projection as a development partner of choice for the Pacific,” he said, adding that civil society and the PIF have not ceased trying to stop the release of the waste water into the ocean.
“They see it as an affront to Pacific sensitivities,” Seneviratne said.
