In this weekend of catching up with reading and news, I came across some fairly interesting material in the Japan Focus news briefing. Having been translated from four parts of editorials printed in the Yomiuri Shinbun (which I unfortunately missed), the articles start off with a discussion of the conflict in the East China Sea between China and Japan but continue on to Japan-UAE ties and competition for oil in Central Asia.
In all of the articles it is clear that the authors believe Japan should accord a more strategic and political importance to ensure access to natural resources. Energy policy should focus more on (diplomatic) efforts to make Japan more visible in the international oil market. Personally, I think a failure to do this more openly is one of the reasons behind the wavering support of Russia for the East Siberian pipeline to the port of Nakhodka. If Japan would have responded more enthusiastically to the initial news in December 2004 that the pipeline would be constructed in Japan's favour there might've already have been a decision. At least, I haven't really come across a lot of positive news from Japan about those first reports from Russia. And now it appears to all go back towards the Chinese option again.
In any case, the articles linked to (in the title of the post) refer to several pending issues, and connect the energy issue to other things such as FTA's and so on which is quite interesting.
In all of the articles it is clear that the authors believe Japan should accord a more strategic and political importance to ensure access to natural resources. Energy policy should focus more on (diplomatic) efforts to make Japan more visible in the international oil market. Personally, I think a failure to do this more openly is one of the reasons behind the wavering support of Russia for the East Siberian pipeline to the port of Nakhodka. If Japan would have responded more enthusiastically to the initial news in December 2004 that the pipeline would be constructed in Japan's favour there might've already have been a decision. At least, I haven't really come across a lot of positive news from Japan about those first reports from Russia. And now it appears to all go back towards the Chinese option again.
In any case, the articles linked to (in the title of the post) refer to several pending issues, and connect the energy issue to other things such as FTA's and so on which is quite interesting.
Edit: I only noticed after posting that there's another recent article on Japan Focus on energy.
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