末廣 昭

石井米雄先生古稀記念 タイ研究特集号(Festschrift in Honor of Professor Yoneo Ishii)

This paper examines the changes that took place in the 1950s and 1960s in Japan's perception of and policies toward Southeast Asia, and clarifies how Japan's road to economic re-entry into the region was paved. By re-examining various views about the region expressed by Japanese political leaders, bureaucrats, business officials, and renowned academics, the author seeks to demonstrate that most of the key concepts that now guide Japan's economic policies toward the region, such as economic development, a common market, and regional co-operation, were coined, and gained influence, as early as the 1950s. Following the Yoshida government's effort to enhance Japan's economic ties with South and Southeast Asian countries, the Kishi government hammered out a concrete formula for Japanese economic re-entry, based on a trinity of war reparation payments, economic development and economic co-operation. Prime Minister Kishi visited various countries in Asia in 1957, presenting his proposal for a 'Southeast Asian Development Fund' as a vehicle for promoting industrial development of the region. Although his proposal foreshadowed the initiative Japan would take in support of the 'developmentalist regimes', which would emerge later in the region in the 1960s, it failed to win the support of either the USA or the leaders of Asia. None the less, Kishi's idea was crystallized in the founding of two important government-funded organizations engaged in economic co-operation (i.e. OECF and AOTS), and a government-sponsored research institute specializing in Asian studies (IDE). At the political level, Kishi's policy was ultimately put into effect by the Satō government when it hosted the first Ministerial Meeting on Southeast Asian Development in Tokyo in 1966, which marked the beginning of both Japan's full-fledged commitment to support the USA in the Vietnam War and Japan's economic re-entry into Asian markets.