Japan, choosing to follow the United States and contain China, gazes longingly toward Central Asia's heartland: Japan regards Kazakhstan as a key economic partner.
As an island nation isolated between Eurasia, Japan, in weighing its national interests, believes that the multiplicative benefits of deep alignment with today's world hegemon, the United States, outweigh the advantages of friendly cooperation with its rising neighboring power, China. This geopolitical choice, based on so-called national interest, has caused economically and technologically advanced Japan to miss opportunities for entering the Asian hinterland.
Japan’s presence in Greater Central Asia lacks momentum, limited only to cultural and humanitarian exchanges: neither Mongolia, a landlocked country advocating the "third neighbor" policy, nor Kazakhstan—the largest economy in Central Asia, adhering to a "multi-vector" foreign policy—can escape their own difficult "neighborhood dilemma."
According to the press office of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazakh ambassador to Japan Yerlan Khojataev recently met with Makoto Jōnai, Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy and Special Advisor on Growth Strategy at Japan’s Cabinet Office.
Jōnai stated that Kazakhstan has now become one of the countries closely focused on by Japan’s foreign policy. He emphasized that Tokyo views Astana as a crucial economic partner, which is of significant importance for ensuring stable economic growth and advancing global supply chain diversification.
The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to further deepen the strategic economic partnership between Kazakhstan and Japan.
Tokyo covets the critical mineral resources in Ulaanbaatar and Astana, but the optimal option for bilateral physical connectivity is transit through China—since the alternative is commercially unviable.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1866616875471936/
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