At the state banquet in Malacañang, President Duterte said, “Japan is a friend closer than a brother…a friend unlike any other.” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded that Philippine-Japanese relations are “deep, warm and brotherly”.
Both leaders were characterizing the current relationship between their two countries. They could have very well been talking about their personal ties—which have been demonstrably close since Duterte visited Tokyo last October.
At the time, the proverbial red carpet was rolled out for Duterte, befitting a visiting head of state. Moreover, Abe made the unprecedented gesture of inviting the President to his official residence for an evening one-on-one meeting.
In Japan an invitation to one’s home sends out a strong signal of respect and confidence—a cultural norm equally true in the Philippines. The highest compliment a Filipino can pay to a friend is to invite him over to his home.
Duterte did just that with Abe, not only to his official residence, Malacañang, but to his home—a humble bungalow at a private subdivision in Matina, Davao City. There, the leaders shared a simple breakfast and toured Duterte’s bedroom, complete with the mosquito net he uses when he sleeps. That visit captured the closeness and the perfect chemistry Abe has struck with Duterte.
In pushing for Japan to be more assertive and active in global affairs, Abe appears to be following in the footsteps (and possibly learning from the experience) of his grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi—Japan’s 57th prime minister—and his father, Shintaro Abe—Japan’s longest-serving postwar foreign minister. But his personalized approach to diplomacy—fostering close personal ties with world leaders—appears to be a distinctive trademark of the Prime Minister’s leadership.
He has shown himself to be a perceptive, emphatic and daring diplomat. Last December he visited Pearl Harbor with President Barack Obama as a symbolic act of reconciliation between the US and Japan—an act that for decades was unimaginable for a Japanese prime minister.
A little more than a week after the November 2016 elections, the prime minister broke with protocol and personally met with US President-elect Donald J. Trump—becoming the first foreign leader to do so.
Analysts surmised the hastily organized meeting between Trump and Abe was to clarify several controversial campaign statements of the president-elect and assuage fears about future cracks in the rock-solid US-Japan alliance. No details have been released about the president-elect and prime minister’s meeting, as their conversation was unofficial. But both leaders have since come out with statements of trust and friendship for each other, with the commitment to meet and discuss more at a later time.
Such adept diplomacy is also at play here in the Philippines, building on the long history of Philippine and Japanese relations.
Despite a cruel past, the Philippines and Japan have only gotten closer since diplomatic ties were normalized over six decades ago. In the intervening years, Japan became a top provider of foreign aid, lending the Philippines up to $20 billion in official development assistance. This includes millions of dollars in endowments for the Asian Development Bank, which has devoted an average $745 million per year since 2006 for poverty reduction in the Philippines.
Japanese businessmen have also maintained partnerships with Filipino counterparts for years, making significant job-creating investments throughout the country. In fact, close to 30 percent of locators in special economic zones under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority are Japanese companies.
The partnership extends to national security. Last August the first of 10 so-called multirole response vessels from Japan was formally turned over to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), as part of a P7.3-billion loan agreement entered upon with the Japan International Cooperation Agency in 2013. Another agreement, worth P6.8 billion, was signed last November for two 94-meter large vessels that will vastly improve the PCG’s capabilities to patrol the country’s territorial waters.
Clearly, Japan is a most important friend and ally of the Philippines in Asia. It is a welcome development that the two countries’ ties are deepening even further—thanks to the personal touch of Abe.
His diplomacy demonstrates respect, empathy and generosity toward the other party. These are qualities we all need—to keep our rationality, sense of balance and perspective in a world quickly turning unpredictable and untraditional.
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