Comunidad del pacífico en perspectiva - Volumen 2

JAPANESE ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PROMOTION OF THE PACIFIC BASIN COOPERATION Mitsuro Donowaki l. Increasing cooperation across the Pacitic For many centuries, the Pacific Ocean has been a forbidding natural barrier between nations in the area. It has been the largest ocean on earth where our brave and adventurous ancestors occasionally suc– ceeded miraculously to spread human imprints and to make con– tacts between different cultures. More recently, partly due to the rapid development of the means of sea and air transportation, the Pacific Ocean has beco~e a theatre for transoceanic military con– frontations -three times in the last four decades, ill-befitting the popular name by which the ocean is known to uso However, over the past decade or so, further changes have been taking place in the Pacific basin regíon. Technologícal develop– ments are making the ties among the Pacific basin nations even closer. By the introduction of large-bodied jet-aircrafts, supertan– kers, communication satellites, advanced underwater cables and so forth, the Pacific Ocean is gradually being transformed into an inland sea where the passage of people and goods is becoming increasingly safe, economical, and consequently, highly intensive. Furthermore, the Pacific basin is surrounded by the most vigorous– ly developing economies of the world. It is often pointed out that the United States trade with Pacific nations supassed its trade with Atlantic nations in 1977. To give another example, Professor Hugh Patrick of Yale University recently testified before a u.s. Congres– sional Committee that the trade among North America (excluding u.s.-Canada trade) , Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong-Kong, ASEAN coun– tries (Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore), Australia, New Zealand and Papua-New Guinea amounted to only $ 15.1 billion in 1965, but has reached $ 104.8 billion by 1976. 86