Interview: Don’t neglect Japan-U.S. friendship ‘garden’

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In business, culture and politics, the friendship between Japan and the United States has become unshakeable in recent decades–so much so that both countries may be in danger of taking it for granted.

But experts know that the “garden” of diplomacy still requires active cultivation to keep it healthy.

The Asahi Shimbun spoke with Ryan Shaffer, president of the Japan-America Society of Washington, D.C., on Japanese culture in the United States, and American policymaking toward Japan.

The Japan-America Society hosts Japanese language classes, the D.C. Sakura Matsuri festival and other events in the D.C. area, as well as the National Japan Bowl, a Japanese language competition among high school students.

The society was founded in 1957 “largely by veterans of the State Department, and of the U.S. Armed Forces that had served in Japan, and for whom they craved interactions with Japanese culture, which weren’t as readily available in those days,” Shaffer said.

In recent years, both countries may have taken Japan-U.S. relations for granted. On U.S. views toward Japan, Shaffer argued that “having a strong and healthy relationship” between Japan and the United States “poses a little bit of a danger.”

“That is,” he continued, “it’s possible to ask the question, why are you spending so much time and resources investing in a relationship that’s perfectly healthy?”

But Japan once dominated headlines, hearings and policy discussions in D.C. During the Japan-U.S. “trade war” of the 1980s, Japanese business and commerce flooded the U.S. market, while U.S. businesspeople and lawmakers claimed unfair trade practices toward their Japanese counterparts.

“During the ‘80s, as is the wont of Washington, there was a lot of activity focused on the foreign policy issue of the day, which at least in East Asia was the U.S.-Japan trade and investment tensions,” Shaffer said. “And so, while there is a fair amount of policy focus on Japan even today, it was much more so in the 1980s, where you would have programs focused on that subject maybe every week, every day of every week, there was much more of an appetite.”

In the 2020s, Japan-focused policy may simply be taking a necessary backseat to the ongoing U.S.-China trade conflict. However, Shaffer argued that in the US “executive branch, there actually remains a very deep and positive and constructive relationship with Japan.”

Japan also faces a problem of declining interest among students in studying abroad. That is in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which decimated the annual numbers of Japanese students studying abroad, according to The Asahi Shimbun.

In 2018, a record 115,146 Japanese high school students studied abroad–in 2020, that number fell by 98.6 percent to 1,487.

Other outlets have reported on survey data from Japanese ministries, which has shown that Japanese young people’s interest in studying, living and working abroad–particularly in the United States–has fallen in recent years.

According to a survey from Sanno University, the percentage of new employees in Japan who said they “did not want to work abroad” rose from 28.7 percent in 2004 to 63.4 percent in 2015, then declined to 60.4 percent in 2017.

Likewise, compared to youth in neighboring countries, a 2019 Cabinet Office survey shows Japanese young people feel unusually uninterested in studying abroad. For example, 65.7 percent of South Koreans said they wanted to study abroad, while only 32.3 percent of Japanese answered in the affirmative.

The late George Shultz, secretary of state in the administration of former President Ronald Reagan, spoke often of “tending the diplomatic garden” in U.S. foreign affairs. International partnerships are only maintained by dedicated enthusiasts and policymakers–nowhere is this more important than in the Japan-U.S. friendship.

Japanese culture has a wide-ranging appeal across demographics in the United States, but the same cannot be said for the Japan-U.S. policy community in D.C.

Shaffer explained, “When you look at the Sakura Matsuri Japanese street festival that we do every April, which is enjoyed by a set of participants that is perfectly reflective of our region, and then you compare that to, say, a policy-focused networking reception that we will hold on a weeknight in the center of D.C., which will be a completely different demographic.”

Americans’ love for Japanese culture could revive interest in the policy and commerce of Japan-U.S. ties across demographics. Currently, however, the Japan-U.S. policy sector may not reflect the diversity and potential seen at Japanese language classes, anime and video game conventions, along with Japanese businesses and cultural institutions, across the United States.

Shaffer concluded, “if we can connect those two families of events, such that the diversity we enjoy at the Sakura Matsuri starts to appear at those policy events with the professional community that’s managing the U.S.-Japan relationship, well, the relationship will be better off for it.”