Foreign Ministry Wants to Raise Japan's Profile

Reviewed by Takahiro MIYAO

Article:
Foreign Ministry Wants to Raise Japan's Profile
The Daily Yomiuri (3/10/2008)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/
20080310TDY03101.htm

Comments:

According to the Daily Yomiuri article linked above, the Japanese Foreign Ministry is planning to encourage Japanese researchers and business representatives to attend important international conferences and symposiums by covering part of their travel expenses and dealing with the paperwork for such travel. The ministry is targeting such influential events as the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos and the Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany, and is also drawing up a list of possible researchers and businesspersons to be sent to those meetings.

While this sounds like a good idea, it is somewhat doubtful if Japan's profile can be raised simply by sending some researchers and businesspersons to those conferences and meetings. Unless Japanese participants make effective presentations to explain Japan's stance in the international context, their participation may well backfire, as it is often pointed out that Japanese speakers tend to make vague and sometimes unintelligible presentations and draw severe criticisms from Western audiences.

The Japanese government should take a more comprehensive approach to the problem of Japan's declining presence in the international community, not just by providing a supporting program by the Foreign Ministry, but rather by adopting a strategic policy to present Japan as a whole on the international scene politically, economically as well as culturally.

Acknowledgment:
This review is adopted from the following blog (with its Japanese translation):
http://glocom.blog59.fc2.com/blog-date-20080310.html