Japan

Last updated in February 2012

Background

Germany and Japan have a tradition of friendly bilateral relations and over the past decades cooperation in foreign policy has intensified. The 150th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Japan was marked in 2011. The celebrations, which included a wide-ranging programme of events under the motto ‘150 Years of Friendship’ and featured high-level political visibility, will continue until April 2012 because of the triple disaster that befell Japan on 11 March 2011.

As G8 partners, Germany and Japan have shared values and are linked by political, economic and social ties as well as by friendship. Germany and Japan work together closely as partners assuming global responsibility, especially on climate protection, on issues relating to disarmament and non-proliferation as well as in Afghanistan, off the coast of Somalia and on United Nations Security Council reform. On this last issue, there is also close political coordination with Brazil and India within the framework of the G4 group. Furthermore, economic, cultural and scientific cooperation between two leading economic powers offers considerable development potential. After China, Japan is Germany’s leading economic and trading partner in Asia. Parliamentary exchange is picking up, though only moderately, a frequent problem being Japanese MPs’ strict obligation to attend sessions of Parliament. 

The Japanese-German Center Berlin (JGCB) plays an important role in fleshing out the sound relations between the two countries. Through intensive dialogue and networking, the German-Japanese Forum, which meets once a year, is instrumental in actively shaping bilateral relations and in promoting the two countries’ joint assumption of global responsibility.

The major multilateral forums for cooperation with Japan are the United Nations, the G8 group and the Asia-Europe summits (ASEM). In addition, the EU is a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) on security policy issues in Asia. There is also a regular exchange between Brussels and Tokyo. The question of whether official negotiations should begin on the conclusion of both an EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement and a comprehensive political framework agreement is currently being looked into.

Mutual visits

Mutual visits at senior and top level are frequent.The most recent high-level visit to Japan was the week-long trip by Federal President Wulff in late October 2011, which also took him to Japan’s earthquake- and tsunami-devastated region in the north-east of the country. The Japanese Emperor Akihito last paid a state visit to Germany in 1993. Crown Prince Naruhito was in Berlin in June 2011.

The two countries’ foreign ministers meet regularly on the sidelines of multilateral conferences. Federal Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle’s first trip to Asia after assuming office took him to Japan. Westerwelle’s visit on 2 April 2011 underscored German sympathy and solidarity with Japan in the wake of the 11 March 2011 earthquake disaster. Then Japanese Foreign Minister Matsumoto visited Germany twice in 2011, to attend the Munich Security Conference and the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative in Berlin.

In addition, there are regular visits to Japan by German Federal Government ministers and the Minister-Presidents of Germany’s federal state governments, the most recent being those by Federal Transport Minister Ramsauer in January 2012 and Federal Education and Research Minister Schavan in October 2011. Members of the German Bundestag are also frequent visitors. Among those visiting Japan in 2011 were the Parliamentary Group Chairmen of the CDU/CSU, Volker Kauder, and of the Alliance ’90/The Greens, Jürgen Trittin, (both in June 2011) and members of the German-Japanese Parliamentary Friendship Group chaired by German Bundestag member Rolf Mützenich (SPD). 

The Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry of Education and Researchmaintain an exchange of officials with their respective Japanese partners. The Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs holds regular senior-level consultations with its Japanese counterpart. The Federal Ministry of Justice conducts annual consultations on legal policy at state secretary level with the Japanese Ministry of Justice. There is also a regular exchange of judges on work experience and information visits.

Major bilateral bodies

The German-Japanese Forum and the Japanese-German Center Berlin (JGCB) play a special role in relations between the two countries. The JGCB is engaged in a wide range of activities in the economic, scientific, academic, cultural and political sectors. Apart from organizing high-level symposiums, lectures, exhibitions and conferences in Japan and Germany, the JGCB serves as the German secretariat of the German-Japanese Forum.

The JGCB was set up in 1985 on the initiative of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone and Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl. It is funded equally by Germany and Japan. Meeting once a year alternately in Japan and Germany, the German-Japanese Forum (GJF), which makes proposals to both governments on the future course of bilateral relations and the shared assumption of global responsibility, includes independent, prominent representatives from politics, business and industry, science, academia, culture and the media.

Economic relations

The global economy is struggling, given the difficult situation in eurozone and the unsolved US debt crisis. Japan must also cope with the aftermath of the 11 March 2011 disaster. The impact of the events in Japan on global production, world trade and German-Japanese economic relations appears to be less severe than initially feared. Over the summer of 2011, Japan’s industrial production recovered quicker than expected and reached its pre-disaster level again by the end of the year.

After a more than 30 per cent slump in trade between Germany and Japan in 2009, bilateral trade grew in 2011 for the third year running. Japanese imports from Germany were worth approximately YEN 1,877 billion in 2011, compared with YEN 1,688 billion in the previous year, an increase of 11.1 per cent. Japanese exports to Germany were worth YEN 1,871 billion in 2011, compared with YEN 1,776 billion in the previous year, an increase of 5.4 per cent. In terms of imports, Japan ranked 14th among Germany’s foreign trading partners in 2010 (accounting for 2.3 per cent of the total), and in terms of exports 18th (1.3 per cent).

Though Japan’s share of world trade, at 4.6 per cent, is less than that of Germany (9 per cent), it still ranks fourth worldwide. The comparatively low figures do not, however, properly reflect Japan’s importance for world trade and German industrial production, many German products being reliant on the supply of components from high-tech Japan. These are practically irreplaceable because the more complex the primary products, the harder it is to find alternative suppliers. In some sectors, e.g. electronic control and memory modules, Japanese companies are world leaders. Although most production facilities are located in the south of the country, and thus escaped the direct effects of the disaster, those located in the north were at least temporarily affected by power shortages in the spring and summer of 2011. The power supply has, however, since been restored, in the northern parts of the country as well.

In the financial sector, the two countries’ interdependenceis relatively weak. In 2011, stir was caused by the Japanese government’s purchase of some EUR 3 billion worth of EFSF bonds and its announcement that it might subscribe for further EFSF bonds.

Scientific exchange

An intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in science and technology has been in place since 1974. Bilateral cooperation currently focuses on marine research, geology, life sciences, basic research in physics and environmental research. In addition to the intergovernmental agreement, there are at present more than 300 cooperation accords between German and Japanese universities as well as numerous project and cooperation agreements between non-academic research institutes such as those belonging to the Fraunhofer Society, the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Leibniz Association and their Japanese partner institutes. This is supported by the regular exchange of scientists and researchers under scholarship programmes run by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and by projects funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in cooperation with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

To increase the visibility of Germany’s contribution to International Cooperation on Science and Technology, a German House of Science and Innovation (DWIH) is currently being set up in Tokyo under the Foreign Science Policy Initiative (as the Federal Foreign Office’s contribution to the Federal Government’s Strategy for the Internationalization of Science and Research presented in February 2008). Consortium heads of the pilot project in Tokyo are the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan (DIHKJ) and the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK). On 6 October 2010, the first German-Japanese Science and Innovation Forum was held in Tokyo and featured a keynote presentation by Nobel Prize winner Harald zur Hausen.

The German Innovation Award/Gottfried Wagener Prize, which was created in 2008 and is sponsored by twelve technology-oriented German companies operating in Tokyo, aims to establish sustainable networks and partnerships between German companies and Japanese research institutes and universities. Federal Minister of Education and Research Professor Dr. Annette Schavan is the award’s patron. The jury is headed by Professor Dr. Masuo Aizawa (Council for Science and Technology Policy).

Cultural exchange

Cultural exchange between Germany and Japan is intensive and wide-ranging. The close-knit cultural network including 60 Japanese-German societies in Japan, 50 German-Japanese societies in Germany, 436 bilateral university cooperation agreements, some 250 German-speaking lecturers, 66 town twinning arrangements (including five prefecture partnerships) and the three branch offices of the Goethe Institute – in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto – forms the basis for a wide range of events. Since October 2010, the 150th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations has been celebrated in both countries with an attractive programme of events. For this purpose, a special website was created (external link, opens in new windowwww.dj150.jp), providing regularly updated information on the anniversary and the programme of events.

The numerous concerts given by leading German soloists and orchestras and the first-class exhibitions mounted by German museums and collections give substance to the artistic exchange between the two countries.The most recent outstanding example was the Bavarian State Opera’s highly acclaimed tour of Japan in September 2011. Exhibition highlights include the major, internationally well-received Hokusai retrospective in Berlin’s Martin Gropius Building, which was extended until the end of October 2011 owing to popular demand, and the exhibition ‘Distant Companions: 150 Years of German-Japanese Relations’ at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim, which ended in February 2012.

The Goethe Institutes in Tokyo and Osaka organize cultural and information programmes, and the Goethe Institute in Kyoto(Villa Kamogawa) has offered an Artist-in-Residence Programme since the spring of 2011. In addition, there are the events organized by the German East Asia Society (OAG) in Tokyo and Kobe. Japan’s principal cultural intermediaries in Germany are the Japanese Cultural Institute in Cologne and the jointly run Japanese-German Center Berlin (JGCB).

There is a lively academic exchange between German and Japanese universities. Germany’s engagement in the academic sphere includes a German-funded Centre for German and European Studies (since 2000) at the prestigious University of Tokyo and an Environmental Studies programme at the University of Beppu on Kyushu Island (since 2006), which was taken over from the University of Trier. Since the early 1990s, the total number of Japanese students in Germany has increased by approximately 50 per cent, to 2,100, and the number of German students in Japan also rose in 2010, despite the language barrier, to approximately 550. The DAAD’s Tokyo office supervises a large number of scholarship programmes for the Japanese side as well and represents the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which has in Japan one of the world’s largest and most active alumni networks. The Alumni Portal Germany, which was set up in autumn 2008, serves as a network, contact exchange and knowledge broker all rolled into one.

Of particular importance in promoting academic exchange is the generous Philipp Franz von Siebold Award, worth EUR 50,000, which has been presented personally by Germany’s Federal President every year since 1979. The most recent award winner (2011) was the physicist Professor Dr. Hidetoshi Katori.

The lively school and youth exchange has been institutionalized since the 1970s. It is organized under the auspices of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (nearly 10,000 young people have taken part in the Junior Sports Club Simultaneous Exchange since 1974) by the Japanese-German and German-Japanese societies (including an annual Youth Summit held alternately in Germany and Japan) as part of the town twinning arrangements and in cooperation with the Japanese-German Center Berlin (the Mercedes-Benz-funded Takenoko Fund for German-Japanese Student Exchange and the Robert Bosch Foundation-funded Young Leaders Forum).

German films and the regularly held German Film Festival, which is organized by the Goethe Institute in Tokyo, are highly popular. Highlights in 2012 include the Japanese premiere of ‘Hotel Lux’, attended by the film’s director, Leander Haussmann. The European Film Festival also regularly features a German film. Japan is the world’s second largest film market and offers great opportunities for exporting German films.