Japan to raise profile overseas with new embassies
At least six new embassies planned as Tokyo aims to address Beijing's growing influence
Japan is planning an aggressive expansion of its overseas diplomatic presence as Tokyo fears it is slipping behind Beijing's efforts to win new friends and influence governments around the world.
Tokyo is planning to open six new embassies in 2014, and a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it had applied to the central government for funds for the diplomatic outposts to raise the nation's profile around the world.
Japan and China have a number of common interests in Africa, other parts of Asia and the eastern Pacific, as well as being in a similar geographical position, so geopolitical rivalries will always be in people's minds when Tokyo does something like this
Two additional embassies are being opened this year, in the newly independent South Sudan and in Iceland, bringing the total number to 136. China, however, has diplomats stationed permanently in 164 nations.
National broadcaster NHK announced that new Japanese embassies would be set up in the Kingdom of Bhutan and the Republic of the Marshal Islands, neither of which have diplomatic ties with China.
Embassies will also be established in Turkmenistan, the Republic of Namibia, Armenia and Barbados, from where a larger part of the Caribbean will be served.
"Japan and China have a number of common interests in Africa, other parts of Asia and the eastern Pacific, as well as being in a similar geographical position, so geopolitical rivalries will always be in people's minds when Tokyo does something like this," said Jun Okumura, an international relations analyst with the Eurasia Group, political risk consultants.
