Insights On Japan’s Cultural Diplomacy Among South-east Asian Countries

Japan’s cultural diplomacy has been widely recognized and valued by other countries. Given the fact that the accelerated globalization has helped Southeast Asian countries get increasingly rapid economic growth, Japan begins attaching great importance to its cultural diplomacy towards the countries, so as to enhance its intimacy with Southeast Asia and establish its own image as a responsible country. The studies of Japan’s cultural diplomacy help to understand the mode of Japan’s cultural diplomacy. The main methods of Japan’s cultural diplomacy towards Southeast Asia include releasing information and publicizing policies through publications, televisions, broadcasting and cultural education. The latter contains the Japanese Language Education in Southeast Asia, the emphasis of foreign student education and multi-level cultural exchanges, which involve the "export oriented" international academic exchanges to promote art and cultural exchanges, and free aid for the protection of Southeast Asia’s culture and cultural heritage, in order to increase the number of “Pro-Japanese” and “People who knows about Japan” in Southeast Asia. Through multi-layered cultural exchanges and publications, Japan has gained support from Southeast Asia and enhanced its international influence, and achieved its strategic goal of cultural diplomacy. This paper takes Japan’s cultural diplomacy towards Indonesia and Vietnam as the study case, analyzes the forms and results of Japan’s cultural diplomacy in these two countries. With specific statistics to describe Japan’s cultural diplomacy in Southeast Asia, this paper lays a good foundation for studies in this aspect. The achievement of Japan’s cultural diplomacy towards Southeast Asia lies in the advantages of its pop culture. By promoting Japan’s feature culture and offering free cultural aid to Southeast Asian countries, Japan has managed to gain favorable impression from the countries, and get their support in policies and public opinions. All this lays a good foundation for Japan’s target of becoming a “Political Giant”. However, Japan also should reflect on some of its diplomatic policies, which have raised other countries’ concerns about its future development.