Japan and Southeastern Europe

Abstract

A few months after the beginning of the Second World War, a book entitled The Balkans appeared in Japanese bookstores. It was written by Hitoshi Ashida, a Japanese diplomat who had served in Europe. After the war, Ashida turned to politics and became Prime Minister of Japan. The book focused on the policies of the then Great Powers in the Balkans. For Ashida—as well as for the Japanese public at the time—Japan was not a participant in Balkan politics, but a far-away observer. Fifty years later, the situation was different. In the early 1990s, the wars in Yugoslavia attracted the interest of Japan’s public and of its governing elite. In contrast to the Ashida years, now Japan was not a geographically distant observer. Japan was a participant, one of the great powers involved in the region. As the Japanese constitution imposes significant restrictions on external military engagements, aid is one of Japan’s main foreign policy tools. Not surprisingly, Japan was mainly involved in the Balkans as a donor. This paper attempts to examine this ‘soft’ involvement of one of the world’s leading economic powers in one of the world’s most conflict-ridden zones.