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A role-playing exercise showed that China's pressure is effective, and Japan cannot act according to its own wishes. Lesson: Japan should take the initiative in the information war.

How should Japan handle human rights diplomacy? What are the duties of the country’s new human rights special adviser?

Last weekend I hosted an exercise in which participants thought about how Japan should conduct human rights diplomacy in a fictitious international situation. The goal is to think about what Japan’s human rights diplomacy should be.

The Canon Global Institute (CIGS), where I am the research director, ran such a policy simulation for the 36th time.

Under the supervision of Professor Ken Jimbo of Keio University who is also a CIGS senior researcher, about 40 scholars, civil servants, experts, business people and journalists gathered to participate in this diplomatic event. For about eight hours, they disguised themselves as government officials of various countries. I am deeply grateful for their smart contributions.

In the past 18 months, the pandemic has forced us to conduct these simulations as webinars. However, this time, we were able to practice face-to-face while taking maximum preventive measures against COVID-19.

The face-to-face simulation made me realize three things. 

First of all, diplomatic games are really limited to face-to-face. Negotiation is a shrewd operation between people. There is nothing better than monitoring the other's body language in the flesh.

Second, there are intergenerational transfers between participants. This particular simulation has a history of 10 years. This time, one-third of the participants were young people participating for the first time.

When conducting these meetings, the quality of the participants is everything. At this recent conference, it was great to see young members posing as important guests of various countries so easily. Perhaps the veteran is not dead, just drifting away.

Third, the exercise emphasizes the importance of not forgetting the original intention. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce the concept of political appointment system in Japan and train talented non-civil servants who are not government officials or politicians. This is why I warmly welcome the participation of young people.

I digress. Let us return to the topic.

At this recent meeting, we studied hypothetical situations of turbulence in Myanmar and Xinjiang, and created teams related to Japan, the United States, China, Australia, and ASEAN within our group. The key is to imagine how each of them will respond.

Finally, we concluded that the United States will enact a Uyghur forced labor prevention law and join forces with Europe to put pressure on China. However, we also found that Japan cannot keep up with the United States and Europe, which is disappointing.

The Chinese team performed strongly in simulation. China criticized the United States for being part of the information war, claiming that the Americans "spread suspicious information about Uyghurs."

For Japan, China issued an economic threat, stating that "if you join forces with the United States, we will stop exporting magnesium carbonate, aluminum and graphite to Japan."

The Japanese government officials who played a role only said, "We will monitor the situation," while the United States and other countries are pushing for full supervision of companies with supply chains in Xinjiang.

In the simulation, the role of the Japanese government and economic organizations asked the Chinese role to lift sanctions on Japan and expressed interest in strengthening cooperation in the "Belt and Road" initiative.

At a meeting after the simulation, the Japanese team said: "We are caught between the United States and China. We cannot take the initiative. We have adopted a passive approach. We have given up the idea of ​​enacting any human rights laws or sanctions. Because we don’t want to anger China and end with a very realistic result."

At the same time, the Chinese team commented: "We are actively separating Japan from the United States, India and Australia" and "imposing economic pressure on Japan."

In other words, when translated into the real world, China's pressure is effective—and Japan cannot operate in the way it wants. This is not an illusion. Human rights diplomacy is an important part of information warfare, but it is not a decisive blow.

If the above content is combined with the recent disappearance of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, one conclusion can be drawn: in China's diplomacy, "attack the strong and defend the weak."

Therefore, the message to Japan is clear. In its human rights diplomacy with China, Japan should first engage in information warfare before taking the initiative to attack. That will be the most effective.

Our course is just an exercise-but it is an eight-hour course and taught us a lot of lessons. 

(Read the Japanese Sankei Shimbun report on this link.)

Kunihiko Miyake is the research director of Canon Global Research Institute. He is also a visiting professor at Ritsumeikan University and the director of the Institute of Foreign Policy Research. During the first Abe cabinet from 2006 to 2007, he served as an administrative assistant to Mrs. Abe Akie. From 1978 to 2005, he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan as a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and served as the Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other positions. Japan-US Security Treaty Division, Minister of the Japanese Embassy in China, Deputy Director of the Middle East Bureau. Issey Miyake was born in 1953 and graduated from the Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo.

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