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Japan Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands
Japan's economic involvement in Australia is heavily
tilted
toward extraction of natural resources and in-country
manufacturing
for the Australian domestic market. Japanese investment by
1988
made Australia the single largest source of Japanese
regional
imports. Japan's trade with New Zealand is a small
fraction of its
trade with Australia.
Politically, Japan's relations with Australia and New
Zealand
have elements of tension as well as acknowledged mutuality
of
interest. Memories of World War II linger among the
public, as do
a contemporary fear of Japanese economic domination. At
the same
time, government and business leaders see Japan as a vital
export
market and an essential element in Australia's and New
Zealand's
future growth and prosperity.
By 1990 commercial and strategic interests prompted a
strong
surge in Japanese involvement in the newly independent
island
nations of the Pacific. Japan's rapidly growing aid to the
South
Pacific was seen by many as a response to United States
calls for
greater burden-sharing and to the adoption of the 1982
Convention
on the Law of the Sea, which gave states legal control
over fishery
resources within their 200-nautical-mile exclusive
economic zones.
The US$98.3 million that Japan provided in aid to the
region in
1989 was fourth behind France, Australia and the United
States but
was significantly more than was provided by New Zealand
and
Britain. Japanese companies also invested heavily in the
tourism
industry in the island nations.
Data as of January 1994
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