The Times of India reported this week that the proposal is in its initial stages, which in its opening phases could coordinate policies not only on energy and environmental issues, but visa-free travel and joint public health initiatives. In its latter stages political issues and common policies on defense and agriculture would also become prominent.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is said to have suggested the concept to Chinese President Hu Jintao during their first meeting in New York on Sept. 21, where both were attending the United Nations 64th session of the General Assembly. Last week in Shanghai the proposal was again discussed during Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada's meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi. Reuters has reported that membership in an Asian economic community could be extended to South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and that the first step would be closer economic integration.
Analysts suggest that if Japan and China do form a union, or "East Asian Community", it would make them a very powerful economic force in the world and improve economic and political relationships, potentially even obtaining a common currency. Currently Japan is the world's second-largest economy and China is the third largest. The union is in early stages of discussion, but areas of co-operation include the removal of China Visa restrictions and vice versa, public heath, energy and the environment. The rapid pace of the discussions has been attributed to efforts by the new Japanese Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, to build new relationships with the country's neighbours after decades of previous right-wing governments turning only to the US.
The prospective Asian economic union is being closely watched in Europe where East Asia is becoming an increasingly coherent regional entity in political economic terms, and remains a region of enormous geo-strategic significance for the European Union, according to a research paper, Japan, China and East Asian regionalism: implications for the European Union, published last year. The research paper outlines why Europe's links with China and Japan are especially important, and moreover why these two countries are looking in various ways to exercise various forms of regional leadership in East Asia. This has critical implications for the EU's relations with the East Asia region generally, and also for the wider international system. These matter for the European Union, and recommends that the EU should pay particularly close attention to emergent exercises of regional leadership in East Asia, most likely to be performed by Japan and/or China.
Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Studies at Temple University in Japan, believes that the two countries are now looking for an alliance in order to improve its economic ties. "I think Japan is looking for a way to improve the atmosphere with China, show Japanese leadership and co-operation, as well as improve economic ties and resolve pending territorial issues," The Telegraph quoted Dujarric, as saying in one published report. Dujarric also believes that there are benefits that the West could reap from a closer relationship between Japan and the rest of Asia." The US supports the 'stakeholder' theory, that China has to be given a stake in the world order, and this would help," he said. The proposal will again be on the agenda when the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea will meet in Beijing on October 10.
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