Professor Toshiro Tanaka

Professor Toshiro Tanaka
Keio University, Japan

Asian (ASEAN +3) Perspectives on European Integration

Abstract:

This paper will examine how Asians in general, and ASEAN +3 political elites in particular, perceive Europe and the EU’s development and integration processes: Is Europe prominent in the Asian perception of the world order, and is there much general interest in European affairs? Is ‘Europe’ the European Union, or is it thought of more as a conglomeration of individual nation states? Do Asian governments conceive of dealing bilaterally with EU countries or with the EU as a bloc? Which would they prefer? When ASEAN +3 elites look towards Europe, what is their focus?

This paper asks whether or not ASEAN +3 states have a positive attitude towards the EU and towards dealing with it, and explores competing perceptions of the EU as bureaucratic, obstructionist and hard to handle, or alternatively, as a supranational structure that is easier to deal with for Asian states.

The question of the EU as a model for Asian regionalism is addressed from the Asian point of view, taking into account Asian reactions to Europe’s recent dilemmas. Have the ‘roadblocks’ in the EU’s integration process affected the way East Asia views Europe’s integration project or its assessment of the EU as a success story?

Biographical note:

Professor Toshiro TANAKA is Professor of European Integration, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Keio University in Tokyo since 1985 and he has been an Ad Personam Jean Monnet Chair since December 2003. He received his BA in 1969, and in 1971, both in Law from Keio University.

Prof. Tanaka has been a leading academic and a founding member of the European Union Studies Association of Japan (EUSA-Japan) and has been a member of the Board of EUSA-Japan since 1980. He was President of EUSA-Japan between 2002 and 2004. He is President of EUSA Asia-Pacific since September 2004. His recent publications, written in English, include ‘Peace and Reconciliation between France and Germany after the Second World War’, Journal of Political Science and Sociology, No.2, 2004 and ‘From the Convention through the IGC to European Constitutional Treaty’, EU Studies in Japan, No. 25, 2005.

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