Japan’s dilatory tactics to postpone the development of massive Azadegan oil field, mainly because of American pressures, left the Iranians with no option but to cancel the lucrative contract last year, even though the Japanese don’t like to see that the Azadegan prize finds its fate in the hands of the Chinese.

Considering Iran’s nuclear issue, whenever a top Chinese official meet the Iranians, he or she often emphasizes that the nuclear program is Iran’s legitimate right and it is not the business of the West to oppose Iran’s policy. Chin’s diplomatic dexterity succeeds when it skillfully afford to assuage the West with voting against Iran in the UN Security Council. The Chinese then simply justify their double-crossing behavior toward the Iranians saying “we are sorry, but we can’t jeopardize our huge economic market in the United States and hopefully you understand our position”.

Japan for its own part opposes Iran’s nuclear policy directly or indirectly, and when it comes to vote in key international institutions working on the nuclear problem, the Japanese feel no hesitation to raise their hands in favor of their Western allies. Japan has also been fully committed in implementing those bodies’ decisions and resolutions on Iran’s nuclear issue.

After all, Chinese smiling diplomacy and face-to-face contacts with the Iranians pay off enormously. There is even a rivalry among the Chinese leaders for Iran visit. China’ top communist officials from the president to the chairman of national people’s congress and from the foreign minister to the chief of many other ministries have all paid a visit to Iran.

Hardly any season passes without a VIP visit from Beijing to Tehran. Chinese industries and businesses are even more enthusiastic to go Iran for new opportunities. Tehran trip has become a routine business for many top managers of Chinese companies from automakers to textile producers.

Compared to their communist counterparts in China, Japanese top political leaders have so far been reluctant, or better to say cautious, for face-to-face contacts and direct communications with Iranian officials. Former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, father of current Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, was the first and the last Japanese leader who visited Iran around three decades ago.

Despite China’s recent surge in Iran, the relationship between Japan and Iran in political, economic and cultural aspects is moving forward in fairly good conditions. Early this week, Iran appointed the outgoing Tehran’s ambassador to Tokyo as deputy minister for European and American affairs in the ministry of foreign affairs. At the same time, Iran also appointed the deputy minister for legal and international affairs of the same ministry as Iran’s new ambassador to Japan. Iran’s current foreign minister was once the country’s ambassador to Japan as well. Such appointments indicate how Iran regards Japan as an important partner and a major weight in regional and global affairs.

With 11.5 percent of the total, Iran is still Japan’s third largest provider of crude oil. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates stand in first and second place with 31.1 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively.

Although less than 10000, Iranians are the biggest community of foreigners in Japan from a Middle East country. The biggest numbers of Japanese citizens, who have ever associated with a West Asian nation, are those Japanese who have established a family relationship mainly through marriage with an Iranian either in Japan and North America or in Iran. The Japanese rising star and popular baseball player Yu Darvish, who comes from an Iranian father and a Japanese mother, is only one outcome of such connections between the Japanese and the Iranians.

Shirzad Azad is an East-West Asian relations researcher at the Graduate School of International Politics, Economics and Communication, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo.

 

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