In August 2004, Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoriko Kawaguchi met his Central Asian counterparts in Kazakhstan. At this meeting the future format of the new initiative “Central Asia + Japan” also took shape. The Japanese use the analogy of the “ASEAN + Japan” initiative. The following spheres of cooperation have been suggested for this initiative: Short-term problems, such as the struggle against terrorism, spread of drug addiction, mine clearing, elimination of poverty; secondly, the sphere of public health services; and finally, longer term issues such as environment, water and power resources, foreign trade and investments, transportation.

The meeting can be called the fourth stage of the partnership between Japan and the countries of Central Asia. At the first stage, the Japanese government distributed Overseas Development Assistance to the countries of Central Asia. During the second stage, since 1995, the countries of Central Asia have gradually received a preferential status in economic cooperation with Japan. At the third stage, the Japanese government declared a new strategy in the development of attitudes in Japan toward the countries of Central Asia. In 1997, the Japanese government headed by Ryutaro Hashimoto presented a strategy of “Eurasian diplomacy”. It declared a special value for the region in Japan’s interests. Later an Action Plan on “Diplomacy of the Great Silk Road” based on the principles of political dialogue for deepening of trust and understanding was accepted.

Economic projects are being developed in a number of spheres. These include geological prospecting, extraction and transportation of natural resources, investigation and extraction of nonferrous metals, modernization of nonferrous metallurgy, development and modernization of communications, modernization and development of the textile industry, and cooperation in the field of a science, culture and education. Practically in all these spheres, Japan has earlier been active in Central Asia.

It should be noted that the importance accorded to Central Asia by Japan has increased after the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom and coalition activities in Afghanistan. In this context, the words of Uzbekistan’s Senator and former Minister of Foreign Affairs Sadyk Safaev are worth quoting: “I would like to pay attention to the fact that the presence of Japan in Central Asia also includes Afghanistan. It is not a coincidence that the process of economic revival of Afghanistan is referred to as the Tokyo process. It was inaugurated in Tokyo in 2002, and Japan is today one of the most important donors for this country. We considered then and we consider now Afghanistan as an integral component of Central Asia”.

As a result of the recent summit in Tashkent, the final registration of a new regional organization took place. An interesting fact is that for the first time, an observer from Turkmenistan participated in a regional summit of this type. From now on, the new organization will gather for a summit each year.

In its last military doctrine, Japan named China one of the basic threats to its security. One can deduce from the recent flurry of activities that Japan has decided to actively counteract Chinese presence not only in Southeast Asia, but also in Central Asia where a decidedly pro-Chinese organization, The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, already exists.

Differing from the ÀSEAN + Japan format, Japan has in the case of Central Asia decided to create an organization exclusively with the governments of the countries of Central Asia, instead of with an existing organization, such as CACO (Central Asian Cooperation Organization) where Russia is a member. And this confirms Japan’s desire to have a presence in the region on its own merits and not related to China or Russia.