戦後における日本の対中東文化交流活動

―ＫＢＳ・国際交流基金の事業を中心に―

抄録

This paper examines Japan’s cultural exchange policy toward the Middle East through the Society for International Cultural Relations (KBS) and the Japan Foundation (JF) in the postwar years. Cultural exchanges are often used by countries as a foreign policy tool to make citizens of other nations to have favorable/sympathetic views about your own country, as well as to deepen mutual understanding.

This article argues that the Japan’s cultural exchange for the Middle East in the postwar period has been conducted largely as an ad hoc manner. When crises happen in the Middle East and the Japanese image in the region deteriorates, Japan then initiates huge exchange programs for the Middle East to cope with the crises. Although the Middle East has not been given a high priority like the US and Southeast Asia in the Japanese cultural exchange program, it is important for Japan to maintain a friendly relationship with the Middle East for economic security reasons.

Japan’s cultural exchange for the Middle East has been gradually developed by KBS and JF. Having obtained government aid, KBS launched the first original program for the Middle East in 1962. However, the contents were mainly the photo exhibition about the Japanese industry and the education. In the high growth period, Japan did not need to expand the cultural exchange with Middle Eastern countries because Japan’s relations with the Middle Eastern nations were never threatened or in jeopardy.

Japan’s cultural exchange for the Middle East began to change in the 1970s and 80s as a result of such events like two oil crises and the Iran-Iraq War. JF, which took over KBS in 1972, embarked on large-scale projects to promote human exchanges between Japan and the Middle Eastern countries through sports including judo and soccer. It must be noted that the Persian Gulf War of 1991 did not have a big impact on Japan’s cultural exchange for the Middle East because it was the crisis in US-Japan relations sparked by the Gulf Crisis rather than the Gulf War itself that had greater effect on Japanese foreign policy. The percentage of JF’s projects for the Middle East were consistently lower than major areas like North America.

In the 21st century, the September 11 attacks caused a war in Afghanistan and in Iraq. Japan clearly strengthened the cultural exchange for the Middle East again. JF made a framework and tackled reinforced projects including intellectual exchanges to deepen mutual understanding and trust relationship. However, it ended in 2006. If crises and conflicts had not occurred in the Middle East, Japan would not have carried out enormous programs. This indicates Japan increases cultural exchange projects for the Middle East when crises happen and when these crises might badly influence the Japanese image.