SPANNING more than 60 years, Malaysia and Japan have a longstanding and close bilateral relationship, marked by many areas of cooperation.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a key figure in this close relationship, due to his advocacy of the Look East Policy which he initiated in 1981, a guiding light between the two nations, which he recently stated should be resuscitated and rejuvenated.
For his contributions to the bilateral relations and human capacity development among Asians, especially due to the Look East Policy, Tun Mahathir was recently conferred Japan’s highest decoration, the “Grand Cordon of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers” by Emperor Akihito.
It was particularly significant as Dr Mahathir was the last recipient of this highest decoration to be conferred through personal investiture by Emperor Akihito, who will be handing over the throne to Crown Prince Naruhito next year.
Japanese Ambassador to Malaysia Dr Makio Miyagawa said, “the conferment of the highest decoration by His Majesty Emperor Akihito to Tun Dr Mahathir is the expression of the profound appreciation of our nation to his immense contribution to the development, advancement and strengthening of capacity among Asians.
“Since he advocated the Look East Policy, many countries in South East Asia have also adopted similar policies which were well followed by countries in the Middle East, India and Latin America.
I believe his policy of changing the work ethics in Malaysia has influenced fundamental policies of economy in other countries, which might have helped to inspire development in those nations,” he said.
Speaking to the NSTP in an interview recently, Miyagawa said Dr Mahathir’s policies have also strengthened justice, fairness, transparency and governance in Malaysia and in other parts of the world.
In the area of economic ties, Japan has been Malaysia’s largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) contributor, a total value of US$13 billion FDI stock in the country until end of last year.
According to figures from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, 1,400 Japanese companies are currently active in the country, having contributed to the creation of 340,000 job opportunities for Malaysians over the years.
Miyagawa said while industries of both countries share a tight relationship, Japanese companies had slightly hesitated to invest, in recent times, due to the political turbulence in Malaysia.
“After the election this year, our investors have started to look at a fresh environment of Malaysia, and they have been positively considering to increase their investments”.
During his last visit to Japan this November, Dr Mahathir pledged to remove obstacles for further investment into the country.
The ambassador said over the past few months he has received many visitors, including presidents and chairmen of big businesses in Japan. They have been consulting with the embassy on how they can increase their investments into the Malaysian market. The ambassador believes that we will see the positive tangible outcome sometime next year.
“We appreciate a variety of initiatives taken by the Malaysian government, including encouraging invitations by local municipalities and federal government. For the purpose of inspiring reinvestment and also of refurbishing current industrial bases of Japanese companies in Malaysia, we would like the Malaysian government to continue to provide incentives for the modernisation and upgrading of existing investments,” he added.
Miyagawa said many Japanese companies, which have set up their bases here, were very delighted to have contributed to the development of the Malaysian economy.
He hoped that the number of Japanese companies in Malaysia would continue to rise, especially in service sector and high-tech industries, to upgrade and prosper the Malaysian industries.
Miyagawa reiterated that it has been highly important and useful for both countries to continue to have in-depth, frequent discussions and dialogues with the participation of both the public and private sectors.
“The embassy has been willing to have intensified such dialogues with the Malaysian authorities and industries, and we will seek more fruitful collaborations with them,” he added.
Another area of close co-operation is education. Since the establishment of the Look East Policy in the early 80s, many Malaysian students have pursued their higher education in Japan.
“Under the banner of the policy, and assisted by Malaysian government sponsorship, over 16,000 Malaysian students and trainees have studied in Japan.
Besides those sponsored students and trainees, many more Malaysian youth have entered Japanese universities. On returning to Malaysia, they have been contributing to the development of the Malaysian economy”.
Miyagawa said he was pleased to have met many alumni of Japanese universities who are now very active in both public and private sectors in Malaysia.
‘It gives us enormous pleasure to recognise that Malaysian youth, who studied at Japanese universities have acquired basic policies to build and develop a nation, have served to achieve the present prosperity of this nation.” he added.
During his last visit, Dr Mahathir also invited Japanese universities to set up branch campuses in Malaysia.
Miyagawa said Japanese universities have never set up branch campuses overseas before. With the invitation by Dr Mahathir, some Japanese universities have begun their serious consideration.
Malaysia can be the first nation to have a branch campus of Japanese universities.
“For this, our Ministry of Education has also already changed its regulations with which to allow Japanese universities to set up branches abroad. University of Tsukuba, which is a national university, is a possible candidate seriously seeking a path to realise its establishment in Malaysia to meet the request of Dr Mahathir”.
The University of Tsukuba is one of Japan’s oldest and most prestigious universities. It began as a teacher training college to uplift the level of Japanese education, and is now a comprehensive research institution with some Nobel Prize laureates.
Transportation is another area of interest for both countries. According to Miyagawa, Dr Mahathir had requested for assistance from the Japanese government to look into ways to improve the railway sector in Malaysia.
Dr Mahathir asked for good ideas and policy suggestions to improve the railway system and service for both passengers and freight. He indicated that the railways in Malaysia are underutilised, as compared to Japan.
“As requested, both JR Kyushu and JR Freight, which are part of the Japan Railways Group, will dispatch experts to offer human resource developments through lectures and guidance to Malaysian counterparts of KTM, particularly in the operations of rails and maintenance of track and rolling stock including locomotives, for the purpose of improving the underutilisation of Malaysian rails”.
“Our government hopes that this opportunity will upgrade skills and capacity of engineers and operators of the Malaysian railways,” he said.
He added, again as requested by the Malaysian Government, Japanese air and road transportation experts have joined the railway experts to conduct full-fledged research for the improvement of Malaysia’s total transport system. The outcomes of their research will be submitted to the Malaysian government in the middle of the next year.