By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Nov 21 1994 (IPS)

Japan has a full year yet before it hosts the 1995 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Osaka, but the Asian economic powerhouse is already feeling jittery.

Leaders of the 18 APEC member-economies met in Bogor, Indonesia last week and set 2010 for industrialised nations and 2020 for developing countries as targets for establishing a free trade zone in the Pacific Rim.

But it will be at Osaka where the specifics of the new accord — which had faced resistance from many of APEC’s Asian members — will be fleshed out, say Japanese officials and economists.

“What has come from the Bogor meeting is enhancing (Indonesian President) Suharto’s image as a man who did it — and a consensus to impose all the responsibility of devising specifics on the shoulder of Japan, the next APEC host,” says a Japanese trade ministry official.

The task of making a success of the Osaka summit is turning out to be a daunting one for Tokyo, which has always been reluctant to take sides in international debates, say analysts here.

Indeed, complicating matters all the more is that Japan is now caught between the United States, which fought hard for a timetable in the APEC free trade plan, and developing Asian nations that were wary of setting any deadlines.

Says Nobuyuki Osishi of Japan’s leading financial newspaper the Nikkei Shimbun: “Japan is faced with a dilemma of where to stake its future — in Asia or the United States.”

Despite rather acrimonious bilateral wranglings of late, the United States remains Japan’s most important trading partner, absorbing close to 60 percent of Japan’s exports on country basis. Tokyo is also heavily reliant on Washington for its security needs.

Politicians and bureaucrats are thus reluctant to appear on the side of Asian developing countries.

But Japan’s future lies with Asia, and analysts say this is one reason why Tokyo, the world’s largest exporter and largest benefactor from an open Asian market, acted prudently in Indonesia and contented itself by sitting on the sidelines during the debate.

After all, reasoned Tetsuya Endo, Japanese ambassador in charge of APEC affairs, the accord is not binding. He adds, “Every country has its weak points.”

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