Sino-Japanese billiards: Indic Perspectives

The High Court in Osaka ruled on Friday that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's frequent visits to the Yasakuni Shinto shrine honoring that country's 2.5 million World War II dead was unconstitutional. It upheld the separation of state and religion in Japan. The case might now be referred to Japan's Supreme Court. The Chinese had earlier vociferously protested these visits arguing that they reflected Japan's reluctance to come to terms with its war time record in China. Koizumi, in turn, had insisted that these visits were personal in nature. The debates, however, mask something considerably deeper.

Much like the island nation of Britain, Japan has had an ambiguous relationship with the East Asian mainland. While profoundly influenced by Sinic traditions, it remains distinct. In 1894, Meiji Japan defeated Ching dynasty China and annexed Taiwan. In 1931, it colonized Manchuria, and in 1937 it occupied Shanghai and Nanjing. China has repeatedly accused Japan of war time atrocities, including the widespread use of chemical and biological weapons on its civilian population. Japan's defeat at the hands of the Americans in 1945 indirectly facilitated the Communist take over in mainland China four years later. Japan and China restored full diplomatic relations only in 1972.

And yet the two economies have grown to increasingly complement each other. Japan's GDP in 2003 was US$ 4.2 trillion while China's was US$ 1.4 trillion. China is now Japan's largest trading partner. China and Japan are the world's second and third largest consumers of oil.

This explains the competitive diplomatic maneuvers in the Russian far east and in Iran. There are unresolved legal disputes over the maritime border in the East China and South China Seas. Japan claims an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles from its shore while China claims one up to the edge of its continental shelf. UN arbitration is expected in 2009.

Japan has expressed concern of the, allegedly under reported, increases in Chinese defence expenditure, estimated at US$ 28 billion by the World Bank in 2003. Japan itself spent US$43 billion on its defence in 2003, a considerable amount of which went to subsidize US forces on its territory. Japan contributed to US led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, in addition to backstopping US naval operations in the Arabian Sea. It bankrolled the peace process in the strategic region of Aceh in Indonesia, close to the straits of Malacca.

India's Ministry of External Affairs is increasingly cognizant of the impact of Sino-Japanese competition on its own foreign policy options. One might perhaps conceptualize recent coordinated efforts on the part of India and Japan to secure permanent membership in the UN Security Council, post-tsunami relief in Indonesia and the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System in such a context.