Since 2011, Myanmar government is committed to a democratic form and the goal of its democratic policy is M’s normalized relations with the western countries. So Myanmar    implemented the balance in diplomacy trying to realize the situation of sole rely on the neighboring countries including China and promote Myanmar’s development by the diverse investment. It is obviously that strengthened Myanmar’s relation with Japan will benefit the economic development and the process of diplomatic. So Japan is in…Myanmar’s strategic location is very important because it’s lying between China and India.Japan should promote Myanmar’s social status by the promotion of the construction of the democratization and market economy making contribution to ASEAN’s stability ,prosperity and integration. It is important for Japan to maintain its maritime life line by the struggle for the influence and resources of Myanmar. So in other words, Japan does not hope China’s influence expand into the India ocean through Myanmar.

As US released its sanction on Myanmar, Japan helped play a leading role in Myanmar’s democratization and economic development. Since new government came into power, Japan restarted its ODA and investment with Myanmar. So Japanese government always thinks that Myanmar could be accepted only when it insisted on its democratization in political development and market economy and this will be the basis of further development of Japan-Myanmar relationship. 

The idea of Japan’s policies on Myanmar is to promote Myanmar’s political reform and national reconciliation and help Myanmar with its transition of the market economy by ODA as bait, and meanwhile keep the coordination with U.S. and other western countries.

In 2006, Abe Shinzo put forward the implementation of“value-oriented diplomacy”and the construction of“Arc of Freedom and Prosperity”.“Arc of Freedom and Prosperity”means Japan wants to lead the economic and political development process of countries along the US agreed Japanese value, supplement US insufficient power and grasp the initiate and opportunities in the process of East Asian integration. So after Obama’s visit to Myanmar, Japan increased its ODA for Myanmar, playing a role in US return to Asia and rebalance In December of 2012, Abe organized the cabinet again and carried out a series of activities of“value-oriented diplomacy”, trying to influence Asian countries, trying to compress China’s strategic space, to force China into submit to control bilateral relation. By enhancing the diplomatic layout surrounding in China, Abe emphasized that the establishment of a trust relation with the ASEAN country which have the common values and important strategic position can make a new change for Sino-Japan relation. Japan also tries to promote Myanmar’s democratization process via ODA and finally pull Myanmar into the group of“common values”in order to drive a wedge between China and Myanmar. Japanese government not only wanted to take the advantages position in the competition in investment of Myanmar but also wanted to contain Chinese influence in Myanmar.

So in May 2013, Abe Sinzo’s visit to Myanmar, Abe undeclared Myanmar’s all debts and provided Myanmar with a huge sum of ODA. Abe expressed Japan would support Myanmar’s democratization construction, legal system building, and economic reform and peace process. Japan’s visit to Myanmar not only accorded with Japan’s consideration of being political power but also coordinated with US adjust poly towards M, and made up the US insufficiency of US-Myanmar economic relationship ,indicating Japan wanted to return to Myanmar it was more important that Abe cabinet try to deepen Japan-Myanmar relations to prevent China from marching into the India Ocean through Myanmar and contain the East China Sean dispute between Japan and China .

So in 2013, the Japanese government nominated SasakawaYohei, as Chairman the Nippon Foundation, the preventatives of Japanese government to negotiate Myanmar’s peace process. The Nippon Foundation intervene in the peace talks between the Myanmar peace talk delegation and the Ethnic Armed Groups which actively participated in the peace talks. The Nippon Foundation gave an a priority to them in the aid funds. Japan can actively participate in the peace talks as a third party between Myanmar government and the ethnic armed groups because it has not direct interest in Myanmar peace process. by doing like this, Japan can increase its influence in Myanmar, in the 2 aspect: First, it will gain more trust from Myanmar government and Burmese group; second, it will also gain the acceptance and praise from the ethnic minorities.

So about the DOA for Myanmar and In April 2012, Japan decided to carry out the ODA in Myanmar, focusing in three fields:

The first is the support to improve the common people’s life, including medical treatment, disaster prevention, aid for the ethnic minorities and the poor people, agricultural and regional development.

The second is the support for the human resources development and the institutional construction which are very important for economic and social development, including the support for the democratization process.

The third is the supply for the infrastructure construction and the institutional construction and the table one is the Japanese ODA for Myanmar, we can see there are many project in Myanmar.

which are very important for the sustainable development.. But for economic cooperation, For Myanmar, the democratization can’t be promoted without the stability of the domestic situation, but Myanmar is facing many problem . So the remarkable economic development is the specific medicine for maintaining the social stability.

Due to the recent process of Myanmar’s democratization, the Japanese enterprises regarded Myanmar as the future market and began to pay much attention, and many enterprises are looking for the business opportunities in Myanmar.

For strengthening bilateral economic cooperation, Japan and Myanmar chime in easily.

So about the government association, Myanmar’s government regarded their community environment as primary test and naturally pay much attention to Japanese ODA investment. The Japanese government also try its best to aid the infrastructure construction and personal training of Myanmar in order to establish a new bilateral relationship.

For Myanmar market, Japanese enterprise will eager to have a try in company finance, infrastructure, logistic and manufacture. Being optimistic about Myanmar’s economic prospect, Japanese manufacture industry actively explored the local market and expanded its business in Myanmar. However, many Japanese enterprises hesitated to enter into Myanmar Market. The annual bilateral trade volume is only $600,000,000. Japanese enterprises were described by the local people of Myanmar as“4L”, that is,“Look, Listen, Learn and Leave”,. And they also described“NATO”, means“No Action and Talk Only”because they were timid and overcautious, lacking enthusiasm. The lagged infrastructure as restricted economic development of Myanmar. So Japan’s ODA is attractive. Japanese government hopes to dominate the infrastructure construction in Myanmar and lay a good foundation for more Japanese enterprises to enter into Myanmar. In August 2012, Japan and Myanmar agreed to jointly develop Thilawa,SEZIt means Japan wanted to get through the great North-West strategic route way from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

In 2013, Japanese organization held opening ceremony in J-M Mekong region.

Japan planned to build East-West Economic Corridor through Dawei, connecting the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

As my conclusion, after 2011, Japan not only regarded Myanmar as a market worthy of development but also an object of its“value-oriented diplomacy”. Japan paid much attention to this economic and strategic factor. Japan’s largest purpose of being close to Myanmar is to make Myanmar as a friend of Japan and lay a chess piece on the“arc of freedom and prosperity”. After Obama’s visit to Myanmar, Japan enhanced its ODA to Myanmar, playing a role in support the US Asian-Pacific strategy. Japanese government also tempted to develop a relationship with Myanmar to prevent China enter into the India Ocean and contain the East China Sea dispute between China and Japan.  Thus, Japan promoted not only“value-oriented diplomacy”, but also the tough stance on rising China. But Myanmar hopes Japan to bring about more economic profits rather than political troubles. Japan’s attempt to contain, isolate and encircle China is not practical because Myanmar doesn’t want to completely cater to Japan. If Myanmar catered to Japan, it would have to make a choice between China and Japan. In this case, Myanmar will place itself in a dilemma which is not benefit for its national interest.

Of course Myanmar government is optimistic to Japan’s diplomacy , Myanmar has gained more economic interest from Japan after all . Neutralism and balance among the great powers was the basic diplomatic policies of Myanmar government. For Myanmar, Japan cannot take place U.S. and China completely. In other words, Japan, China and US are all important to Myanmar. So Myanmar will maintain its relation well with these countries to realize its maximized interest. It will take time to examine whether Japan can return to Myanmar completely.