2010 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 83-94
Fourteen years prior to the 1971 World Table Tennis championship that initiated the normalization of international relations between China, Japan and the U.S., boxing had already proven its political significance in international relations: particularly, between the Philippines and Japan. Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi in collaboration with the President Carlos Garcia wanted to create trust through cultural exchanges between these two nations.
A lack of foreign currency until the early 1960s made the Japanese government extremely reluctant to host any international meets; it was a national policy. It was Kishi who changed this longstanding policy. He sponsored, through the Foreign Ministry, an ‘‘Oriental Champion Carnival’’ in 1957 in Tokyo, letting all those involved know that the government supported this venture. Supporting this boxing extravaganza was important for Kishi, because he wanted to force the U.S. to reconsider the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, and wanted them to gain a then growing market in the Southeast Asia.
In order to prove the financial soundness of this event, Yachiyo Manabe promoted the fact that it had the power to engender cultural‘‘friendship’’ and ‘‘goodwill’’. In 1959, Manabe also arranged, in collaboration with Matsutaro Shoriki, an important baseball game, with the Emperor in attendance.
I interpret the role that the Oriental Championship played in international politics is to show the Japanese willingness to construct amicable relations with other Asian countries. Because of Japanese aggression during WW Ⅱ, the government of Japan was concerned about anti-Japanese sentiment throughout Asia.
