Finally, here’s a sign that someone in a position to influence Japanese-Korean relations has the right idea.
Osamu Watanabe, the chairman and CEO of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is in South Korea leading a delegation of 90 Japanese companies looking for investment opportunities. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency is co-sponsoring the tour.
“It’s time we focused on creating a healthy environment for mutual cooperation that can contribute to the wealth of all Asian countries,” Watanabe declared.
Showing a better diplomatic touch than the current Japanese ambassador to South Korea, Watanabe easily deflected questions about the Takeshima/Dokdo controversy.
Keeping a smile on his bespectacled face, Watanabe politely refused to comment on the current row over Dokdo, an island between the countries that both claim. ‘Business is business,’ he said firmly. But he did add that the two nations should try to build stable political relations that can in turn foster good business relations.
Maybe Japan should make him the next ambassador to Korea.
In the recently released report on the 2020 project - “Mapping the Global Future” -
the National Intelligence Council under the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency compared the impact of China and India in 2020
it is noteworthy that the report identified both China and India as protagonists of the “Asian era.”
we should not underestimate the growing international role of the European Union, Russia and Japan,
Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa are behind China and India, albeit distantly,
but the presence of Korea, the supposed hub of the Northeast Asian era, is nowhere to be found.
Korea was also missing in the list of projected top 10 largest economies in 2050 by Goldman Sachs’ global research center in its October report.
2004 Goldman Sachs Economic Research, Global Economics Paper, projected top 10 largest economies in 2050
Of the current G6, only the US and Japan will be among the six largest economies in 2050.
Yep, the world keeps underestimating Korea.