The secret of Japan’s success [Part - II]

Japan and Pakistan have been enjoying good diplomatic relations for decades now. Development cooperation between the two countries started in 1954, and since then, Japan has provided assistance to Pakistan in all aspects of governance.

It is important to explore how the two countries can utilise each other’s strengths for mutual benefits. Pakistan needs help to develop as a modern country, and its socio-economic development will largely depend on how it manages to balance its foreign relations with some of the world’s most-developed countries such as China, Japan, and, of course, the US.

Business cooperation with Japan is a significant area that needs more attention and further development. Even though Pakistan has enhanced its fruit exports to Japan, it needs to diversify its export base. For example, instead of just exporting fruit, Pakistan may explore opportunities to establish factories with Japanese help to process food and send it in packaged form. At the moment, there is no value addition in fruit exports from Pakistan. Countries such as Iran have developed their fruit packaging industries, and their dried fruit and other food items have better packaging and presentation.

The same applies to seafood which has great potential in Pakistan. But seafood processing is also at a rudimentary stage in the country. We have a 1000-km-long coast in Sindh and Balochistan, but the fishing areas of the two provinces are not developed. Japan can offer us tremendous help if we manage to negotiate and offer a business-friendly environment. China’s assistance is limited to CPEC, but there are multiple other areas that need our attention to provide job opportunities especially to our young people who are facing problems in finding gainful employment.

Another area where Pakistan can develop cooperation with Japan is the tourism sector. The Japanese love to travel, but for now, Pakistan is not one of their priority countries. They mostly visit countries with Buddhist shrines, such as Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam; these countries offer much better facilities to tourists than what Pakistan does. Although we have some of the best scenic places in the world – the tallest mountains and ancient Buddhist remains, not many Japanese tourists – or those of other countries – visit Pakistan.

Japan has helped us in the restoration of some ancient sites in the country, and if we manage to offer better facilities and security to tourists, Pakistan could easily earn a lot just from Japanese visitors. The country is also known for its athletes and sports. Nearly all Japanese educational institutions and neighbourhood parks have excellent sports facilities. In Pakistan, we are obsessed with only cricket. Japan can also be approached to help us in establishing world-class sport facilities in our educational institutions, as it produces some of the world’s best sports machines.

Japan has also been providing grants to Pakistan for the extension of health facilities. This financial assistance is mainly for the extension of child and maternal healthcare facilities, but it has potential for enhancement. Keeping in view the poor healthcare facilities in our government hospitals, there is a need to improve them with Japanese help. Sindh is performing much better in terms of government-supported health facilities. The Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro is all set to have a new maternal and child health centre which will be completed by August 2024, with Japanese help.

Another area to explore with Japan is human resource development, which has already offered nearly $3 million for scholarships by Japan’s grant aid. It is limited to government officials to study in Japanese universities to obtain Master’s or doctoral degrees. There is a need to expand the scope of this scholarship to include people who are not government employees. There is hardly any expert in the country who specialises in Japanese studies. We need more experts in Japanese art, culture, history and literature.

Japan also has some of the best archaeology departments at its universities. This year – 2022 – will mark hundred years since British archaeologists excavated the Indus Valley civilisation of Mohenjo Daro. Since then, there has not been much progress on archaeological sites in Pakistan. We may utilise Japanese expertise and send our people to Japan to receive education and training in archaeology and preservation of sites. But, again, for that we need a high level of seriousness in the government of Pakistan to explore such areas of cooperation between the two countries.

The Japanese education system is the envy of many developed countries. From early childhood education to the doctoral and post-doctoral levels, Pakistan can learn a lot. Our teachers are unfortunately undertrained and cannot serve as the knowledge builders and mentors needed in the 21st century. As a result, neither our education ministry nor education managers fulfil their responsibilities to enhance educational standards. There is more stress on lip service instead of actively responding to the challenges of the modern times. We can learn lessons from Japan in this regard.

Japan is also a country of music lovers. Pakistan, on the other hand, has only a few good music institutions. Our schools, colleges and even universities do not have departments of music studies. We complain that Pakistani society has become violent; we don’t realise that the more a society moves away from art, culture, and music, the more likely it is to become violent. Music provides a catharsis to tormented souls and soothes our emotions. Can our government take some steps to send at least a few people to learn and study music in Japan?

There are only a thousand Japanese people living in Pakistan whereas over 15,000 Pakistanis live in Japan. We can increase this number by sending more skilled workers to Japan, which desperately needs young people to counterbalance its rapidly aging population. The country is hiring skilled workers from Southeast Asia and has also signed an agreement with Pakistan. But our response has been meek, and job offers are now going to other countries. We complain about lack of job opportunities in Pakistan but do not respond when countries such as Japan look for skilled workers.

All this boils down to one point – that we need to overhaul our foreign policy of putting all our proverbial eggs in one basket; previously, it was the US and now it is China. We need to explore other possibilities and Japan is one country with tremendous potential for mutual cooperation.

Concluded

The writer holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK and works in Islamabad.

He can be reached at:mnazir1964@yahoo.co.uk