This must be the journey of reconciliation

This must be the journey of reconciliation. For her first trip, the new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, went 8 and 9 October in Beijing and Seoul. It is, on the part of the Japanese authorities, the desire to turn the page of the years of tension with Junichiro Koizumi. Except that today ' today, no one can say whether or not this reconciliation will be sustainable.

Shinzo Abe is a wing of the party, favourable to the Yasukuni Shrine visits, this bone of contention between the two countries (see below). He left for the moment the doubt about its intentions. A silence which seems to agree to Beijing but to become quickly weighing for the new strong man of the Japan, forced to choose between the electorate and "realpolitik". In his time, Junichiro Koizumi went first to Beijing and then to the Yasukuni. To do more to return to China.

Failure to lift the litigation, this first visit to China of a number a Japanese since October 2001 is indeed intended to resume the dialogue. Of leading trading partners, the two countries cannot be ignore, even if they are not competitors. Because when China exports shoes and begins to walk on beds of the Japan with the sophisticated consumer electronics (televisions flat screens), the archipelago is already in the era of the semiconductor. In addition, Tokyo has need of China to maintain competitive manufacturing costs. It has, in recent years, largely relocated its labour industries and exports at the same time of medium and high-technology equipment (electronic components, electrical equipment, machine tools). In 2005, Japanese investment in China increased by 20.

Massive purchases of textiles

Moreover, Chinese demand has significantly contributed to Japanese recovery. Year poorly, China accounts for 20 (20.4 in 2005) the exchange of property of the Japan. If trade between the two rivals remain highly unbalanced ( 3.140 billion yen) over Tokyo, this is because while Japanese imports of finished products, but also and especially by the massive purchases of textiles. Because if they are very strict with their neighbour, the Chinese authorities recognize, too, the tip of the lips, that the health of their economy remains dependent on the Japanese market where they have elapsed 53.6 billion of goods in the only first half 2006.

Singled out for its "bad faith", the Japan also remains a "popular" partner of the Chinese for its tens of thousands of jobs Nissan, Honda and Toyota are strengthening their production chains in Guangzhou and its reservoir of new technologies. Venturing outside their territory, several groups of the coast East of the country have taken control of Japanese companies mastering techniques that they had failed, themselves, develop. In 2002, Shanghai Electric had bought Akiyama, a Japanese SMEs specialized in-the-art printing equipment. Last August, it is the Chinese manufacturer Suntech who took control of the nippon MSK Corp. and its expertise in solar energy. When they try not to osées to the Japan acquisitions, Chinese companies encourage the constitution in their territory of joint ventures with Japanese partners, arriving with thousands of engineers and a few trade secrets.

Step of enthusiasm

In constant increase, this interdependence of the two largest economies of Asia have finally pushed the Chinese authorities to accept, after five years of bouderies, a first summit meeting in the capital. Kindling suddenly the North Korean nuclear file would have precipitated their decision. To not disappoint its opinion public, Beijing, however, took care not to no enthusiasm before the Sunday meeting, which coincides with the opening of a plenum of the Communist Party.