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Abstract
After the early 1990s, the wave of regionalism covered broader areas in the world, and Northeast Asia, which had weak regional cohesion largely due to history-oriented animosity, gradually developed initiatives for regional cooperation since the late 1990s. This article seeks to address why and how China, Japan, and South Korea have pursued regional cooperation by relying on the concept of ‘regional governance’. It advances two arguments. First, the governments of China, Japan, and South Korea have identified the avoidance of risk from uncertainty as a major objective of promoting trilateral cooperation in specific functional areas. Second, they have gradually intensified the harmonisation of regulatory frameworks in the cooperative process in collaboration with non-state actors. The article examines the arguments by tracing the evolution of trilateral cooperation in environmental protection and information technology (IT) development.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on the earlier version of this article. This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (19530144) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.
Notes
1. In addition to the neorealist perspective, the constructivist perspective, which puts stress on the importance of national identity in international relations, regards regional cooperation in Northeast Asia as difficult. This is because historically constructed identity and nationalism disturb the development of trustworthy relationships among regional states. See, for instance, Kim (Citation2004b): 41–51).
2. It is controversial whether China can be regarded as an exemplar of a typical developmental state. Some scholars argue that China is lacking the basic elements of the developmental state in state capacity and relations with society (Howell, Citation2006). Others hold that China has replicated important aspects of the developmental state in the process of achieving high economic growth (Baek, Citation2005; Beeson, Citation2009).
3. For the evolution of the TEMM, see its homepage. Available at: http://www.temm.org/.
4. The DSS gathers above the Gobi and Taklamakan Deserts in inland China in the dry spring months. It is flown up by winds and often reaches the Japanese Islands, and has caused various social and health problems.
5. Korea Times, 15 January 1999.
6. The ten areas are as follows: environmental education; climate change; biodiversity conservation; dust and sandstorms; pollution prevention and control such as photochemical oxidant, water and marine environment; environment-friendly society/3R (‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’) /sound resource recycle society; transboundary movement of waste electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste); sound management of chemicals; environmental governance in Northeast Asia; and environmental industries and technology.
7. Photochemical oxidant implies ‘a collective term that includes ozone and some other secondary substances generated in the presence of sunlight (photochemical reaction) from nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or other primary pollutants emitted from factories, businesses, or automobiles’ (MOE, 2006: 29). They cause eye and throat irritation and respiratory distress.
8. For instance, the three research institutes—the Policy Research Centre for Environment and Economy (PRCEE), China, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan and Korea Environment Institute (KEI)—issued a report on trilateral joint research on environmental management in Northeast Asia in January 2009.
9. The GHS is a system for promoting standard criteria to classify chemicals according to their health, physical and environmental hazards. It proposes harmonized hazard communication elements, including product labels and safety data sheets.
10. There are other institutions such as the Northeast Asian Conference on Environmental Cooperation (NEAC), the North-East Asian Subregional Program on Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC). These institutions have suffered from problems pertinent to weak organisational and financial bases.
11. At this conference senior officials from 19 Asian countries and international organisations discussed concrete issues regarding 3R (reduction, reuse and recycling) with raw garbage, e-waste, and medical waste.
12. ‘Joint Communiqué: The 11th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting among Korea, China and Japan’, 13–14 June 2009, Beijing, China. Available at: http://www.env.go.jp/earth/coop/temm/archive/pdf/communique_E11.pdf.
13. These seven areas were third- and next-generation mobile communications; next-generation Internet (IPv6); digital broadcasting; network and information security; open source software; telecom service policy; and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
14. The three governments signed the memorandum of understanding concerning ten areas for joint OSS promotion. The agreement aimed to promote joint research for user identification systems and to support the development of the Northeast Asian OSS Promotion Forum by the private sector.
15. Nikkei Computer, 1 December 2003, p. 14.
16. ‘Chairman's Statement of the 7th Northeast Asia OSS Promotion Forum’, 31 October 2008. Available at: http://www.ipa.go.jp/about/press/pdf/081104-2-statement.pdf.
17. Interview, Information-Technology Promotion Agency, February 2009, Tokyo; China OSS Promotion Union, March 2009, Beijing.
18. Interview, Information-Technology Promotion Agency, February 2009, Tokyo.
19. Interview, China OSS Promotion Union, March 2009, Beijing.
20. ‘Chairman's Statement at the 8th Northeast Asia OSS Promotion Forum’, 20 October 2009. Available at: http://www.ipa.go.jp/about/press/pdf/091021-CS8_master.pdf.
21. The ASOCIO was established in 1984 in Tokyo with an eye to promoting close collaboration among the industrial associations in the computing industry in the Asian and Oceanian regions.
22. Nikkei Computer, 27 January 2003, pp. 20–21.
23. CSIA has a unique character compared with its counterparts in Japan and South Korea. The association, founded in 1984, is an industrial association, but it retains the character of a quasi-governmental body (Kennedy, Citation2005: 134–135). The association has relied on the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) for its staff and financing, and its office was long located within the ministry. Chen Chong, President of CSIA, held a joint title as a deputy-director of the Electronic and Information Products Management Department in the MII.
24. Interview, Information-Technology Promotion Agency, February 2009, Tokyo.
25. Interview, Information-Technology Promotion Agency, February 2009, Tokyo.