Japan Wants To Be More 'Friendly' With Indonesia

JAKARTA - Diplomatic relations between the Governments of Indonesia and Japan have been established since 1958. For 65 years, relations between the two countries have run very well.

The Japanese government hopes that relations with Indonesia can be more "friendly". "Japan and Indonesia relations are increasingly being strengthened," said Deputy Director of the Second Southeast Asia Division of the Department of Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Kaneko Kazuya, as reported by Antara, Saturday, February 18.

Kaneko said the strengthening of relations between the two countries was evidenced by the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to Indonesia and Indonesian President Joko Widodo to Japan.

The two visits demonstrated the efforts of the two countries to further strengthen relations. "So what has been implemented is to create closer relations between Indonesia and Japan," he said.

Japan considers Indonesia an important partner with great potential that still needs to be further developed. Indonesia, said Kaneko, is one of the most dominant countries among the member countries of the 20 or G20 group.

Indonesia is also very strategic because it is located between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean which are vital shipping lanes for Japan. Then, Indonesia has abundant energy resources which have the potential to be developed through closer cooperation.

Kaneko pointed out a survey in England that said Indonesia would become the fourth-largest economy in the world in 2050.

Meanwhile, the graph he shows also shows one of the factors that guarantees Indonesia's future progress, namely the younger generation population which is more dominant.

This is different from Japan, which has a larger elderly population than the younger generation.

Kaneko also highlighted Indonesia as the most dynamic democratic country and the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.

"This is different from Middle Eastern countries which have difficulty realizing people's sovereignty even though they are dominated by Muslim countries," said Kaneko.

Given the many potentials and progress that Indonesia has achieved, Japan considers that the relationship between the two countries needs to be made even closer.

"Because it is predicted that Indonesia will experience progress, Japan will try to improve relations," he said.

For this reason, Japan is trying to take a number of things, including cultivating closer bilateral relations and strengthening maritime security or security cooperation.

Then, pursuing a strategy to increase economic cooperation considering that Indonesia is a middle-income country. Japan is also trying to increase interaction between the people of the two countries in order to foster mutual understanding between the two peoples.

Finally, Japan will work more closely with Indonesia to address regional issues and challenges.