JAPAN: India Quake Nudges Tokyo Beyond Chequebook Diplomacy

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 8 2001 (IPS) - Japan’s prompt response to the devastating earthquake that hit India has been yet another chance for Tokyo to show it can go beyond ‘chequebook diplomacy’ and pitch in to help countries needing assistance, say experts here.

“Japan, as the most earthquake-prone country in the industrialised world, must become the leader in helping Asian countries hit be natural disasters,” stated on national television this week.

Japan had earlier pledged 160,000 dollars to India for the Jan, 26 temblor, then added an extra emergency aid budget of 2.3 million dollars more as the death toll climbed to at least 20,000.

But in addition to giving funds, Japanese military cargo planes are now in the western Indian city of Bhuj in Gujarat state, bringing in shipments of tents and blankets for hundreds of thousands of victims.

Tokyo’s dispatch of its Self-Defense Forces, as its military forces are called, represents the second time Japanese forces have been sent overseas following their involvement in relief operations for the 1998 hurricane disaster in Honduras.

“Indeed, Japan is moving away from its chequebook diplomacy and doing far more by sending personnel as well,” says Prof. Toshiyuki Katada, an earthquake expert at Musashi Technical University.

“The move reflects growing confidence in its ability to lead in Asia and helps Japan to develop closer ties with a region that is very important to us,” adds Katada, who spoke at the World Conference on Natural Disasters here.

The Self-Defence Forces also conducted training sessions for local Indian officials on how to set up tents to shelter the hundreds of thousands who have been rendered homeless in Gujarat.

In addition, government fact-finding missions are also visiting earthquake-torn villages to determine the extent of assistance needed to rebuild homes.

Japanese medical doctors and rescue workers, from both the government and non-governmental sectors, have also been dispatched to the area.

The local media, which usually neglects coverage of most of Asia, has covered the Indian earthquake and its implications for reconstruction and India’s economy in detail.

A special half-hour focus programme on the situation was carried on NHK, Japan’s national television, earlier this week. The programme covered the lack of sanitation, medical care and psychological care for the victims with a commentary by experts who called for more relief from Tokyo.

“The concern on the part of Japan is growing and very welcome. I sometimes feel that the display is even bigger than what was reflected when Kobe was struck (six years ago),” comments Sojiro Kawamura, is a victim of the Kobe earthquake and head of Hyogo Disaster Victims Group.

The group is a non-governmental organisation that is negotiating for better housing for thousands of people who lost their homes in that temblor. More than 5,000 people died in that quake, which occurred in January 1995.

The two-day World Conference on Natural Disasters 2001 here brought together some 230 disaster prevention officials and experts from more than 20 countries.

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