Shifting Patterns in Japan's Economic Cooperation in East Asia: A Growing Role for Local Actors?
In: Asian perspective, Band 21, Heft 1, S. 37-53
ISSN: 2288-2871
Abstract: This article draws attention to the nature of the political process promoting economic interdependence among the regions surrounding the Japan Sea. At least in the case of Japan, the process is being carried forward by local authorities (prefectural and municipal governments) and other local actors. To explain this local initiative in international economic cooperation, the article refers to international systemic factors, such as the end of the cold war and globalization, as well as to national factors, i.e., the inability of Tokyo to meet the development demands of localities in the Japan Sea prefectures. At any rate, local initiative, and the gradual progress being made in this economic cooperation process, are at variance with the normal facts associated with Japan's economic cooperation activity in the postwar period. Economic cooperation has been dominated by the agendas of the central government bureaucracies and big businesses based in Tokyo. The article raises the possibility that what we see in Japan Sea cooperation may be the leading edge of change: the emergence of a new level of cooperation activity where local governments and regional interests set cooperation agendas in dialog with their overseas counterparts. The article then explores some of the implications of such a development for current debates in international relations and comparative politics.