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Gauging Japan's Role in the Middle East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

John de Boer
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[What is the driving force behind Japan's policy in the Middle East? Can it be summed up in one word, oil? Is Japan essentially the lapdog of the United States, or has it established an independent position on contentious issues in the region such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Iraq War, and Iran's nuclear development? Raquel Shaoul and John de Boer take up these questions in two articles as they evaluate Japan's impact on the Middle East.]

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Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 9 , September 2005 , e4
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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Copyright © The Authors 2005

References

Notes

[1] See Selcuk Esenbel, “Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900-1945,” American Historical Review, vol. 109, no. 4, (October 2004), 1140).

[2] For Arab testimonies asserting that “Japan had led the liberation of Asia” see Gaimusho Archives, “H. Tamura [Damascus] K. Okazaki [Tokyo]”, 31 July 1954, File: A’0126, 691/26/0044. and “H. Tamura [Damascus] Shigemitsu [Tokyo]”, 12 March 1955, File: A’0126, 706/26/0062.

[3] See Cemil Aydin, International Politics of Anti-Westernism: Visions of World Order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian Thought, Columbia University Press; Forthcoming in 2006 and his “Overcoming Eurocentrism? Japanese Orientalism on the Muslim World (1913-1945)” forthcoming in Princeton Papers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Marcus Wiener Publishers, 2005.

[4] Yishay Yafeh, Ehud Harari and Eyal Ben-Ari (eds.), Lessons from East Asia for the Development of the Middle East in the Era of Peace,” Jerusalem: Harry S. Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace, Hebrew University, 1998; and a host of IDE (Institute for Developing Economies, Japan) on the lessons of Japanese modernization HAMED, Raouf Abbas (Egypt), “The Rural Gentry in the Nineteenth Century Japan and Egypt” IDE Report, No. 031, (Tokyo, Japan); FAROUK, Abdullah (Bangladesh), “Economic Development of Bangladesh” IDE Report No. 032, (Tokyo, Japan); AL-SAQQAF, Abdulaziz Yassin (North Yemen), IDE Report No. 153, (Tokyo, Japan); DJEFLAT, Abdelkader (Algeria) “Technology Policy in Japan and Possible Lessons for LDCs: The Case of Algeria,” IDE Report No. 223, (Tokyo, Japan); and Massoud A. Daher, “Modernization in Egypt and Japan in the Nineteenth Century: A Comparative Study,” IDE Report No. 236, (Tokyo, Japan).

[5] For more on this see John C. de Boer, “Before Oil: Japan and the Question of Israel/Palestine, 1917-1956,” Japan Focus, 10 March 2005.

[6] See Yasumasa Kuroda, “Japan and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”, in Edward J. Lincoln (ed.), Japan and the Middle East, Washington, DC: The Middle East Institute, 1990, pp. 43-44).

[7] Remarks by Director-General for the Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Domichi Hideaki of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Ambassador of the State of Israel to Japan Eli Cohen. For statement by Haraguchi Koichi Ambassador at the Public Meeting of the Security Council on the Situation in the Middle East Including the Palestinian Question. For Endo Shigeru's statement at the 60th Session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, 24 March 2004 see. For Kawaguchi Yoriko's statement on the killing of Dr. Abdul Aziz Rantisi refer to.

[8] In response to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom's request that “Japan designate Hamas a terrorist organization, Japan's Foreign Minister Kawaguchi only gave assurances that Japan would “carefully examine whether to recognize entire Hamas as a terrorist organization including [the] political wing.” See summary report “Visit to Japan of His Excellency Mr. Silvan Zion Shalom, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel,” August 2003 available.

[9] See summary report “Visit to Japan of His Excellency Mr. Silvan Zion Shalom, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel,” August 2003. Available.

[10] For Japan's commitment to UN Resolutions 224 and 338 see point 4 on Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs link below.

[11] Personal interview with Cohen in Jerusalem, 18 March 2001.

[12] For a more detailed treatment of Japan's recent relations with Iran see Michael Penn's, “The Battle of Azagedan: Japan, Oil and Independence,” Japan Focus Newsletter, September 1, 2005.

[13] John C. de Boer, “Japan and the Occupation-Reconstruction of Iraq: The Reemergence of an Ideological Agenda?”; “The Dangers of Japan's Modernization Discourse in Iraq” see; “The Dangers of Japan's Modernization Discourse in Asia” here. It is not only the Japanese government that is putting forward this message, academics are promoting this image, albeit from a distinct motivation: “Japan and the Muslim World: The Dangers of Japan's Civilizational Model”.

[14] Itagaki Yuzo, Oda Makoto and Mitsukazu Shiboh (eds.), The Israeli Invasion of Lebanon: inquiry by the International People's Tribunal, Tokyo, (Sanyusha, 1983).