vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #154 / Social life / Reading article...

A recent meeting between President Yeltsin and Japan’s Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in Krasnoyarsk gave new direction to Japan’s Vladivostok Consulate, Consul General Tetsuya Hirose says.

Though the two countries are still edgy about border disputes near the Kurile Islands and Russian shootings at unarmed fishing vessels in the area, the Yeltsin-Hashimoto meeting helped to make relations “more cordial and open,” Hirose said in a Nov. 11 interview.

But more importantly, Japan now has a better way of evaluating its effectiveness in the Far East – through the Hashimoto-Yeltsin plan, signed at the summit.

The most important aspect of the plan is an agreement to steadily develop economic relations between the two countries. Though Hirose was given no specific instructions by the Prime Minister, the plan sets forth a number of goals for Japanese diplomats working in Russia.

Specifically, Hirose said, he will work closely with Japanese efforts in a training program for Russian business managers. The consulate already has a program in cooperation with the American-sponsored Eurasia Foundation which offers courses in management, business planning, and financing.

The Hashimoto-Yeltsin plan also calls for an Investment Cooperation Initiative, as well as expansion of reform support in Russia. Already Japan has established a Regional Venture Fund in the area, which assists small- and medium-sized businesses. And because Vladivostok is considered the entry and exit point for much of Japan’s investment in Russia, the Japanese may help develop infrastructure for the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Yeltsin and Hashimoto also agreed to sign a peace treaty by 2000 that would settle disputes over two Kurile islands that Russia and Japan both claim. The two countries never signed a conclusive treaty after World War II. Hirose hopes that the treaty will be part of an eventual process to make Russia a less hostile place for Japanese investors, who are not only frustrated with complex tax and customs laws, but harbor an overall feeling of unease about the border squabbles, he said.

The unease stems mostly from scattered shooting incidents around the unsettled area. Earlier this year, and periodically in the past, Russian soldiers have fired upon unarmed Japanese fishing boats. (Russian border guards said that in the most recent incident, Japanese boats ignored repeated orders to halt even though they had entered Russian territorial waters.) A clear treaty would ease the tensions in that area, Hirose said.

Still, one key problem in the Far East was not raised at the summit. Illegal fish trade with Japan now occurs at an alarming rate, with some estimates indicating that more than 50 percent of catches sold to Japanese buyers goes unreported and tax free.

And though the problem, which cuts prices drastically in Japan, is being addressed by the two governments on lower levels, Hirose admits that it will be a long time before either side cracks down on such illegal trade.

“We are still in the information gathering stage,” he said. “It’s true that no details have been negotiated yet.”