ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Pakistan’s nuclear blast conducted on 28 May 1998 led toward the deterioration of diplomatic and economic ties between the two countries. This period can be divided into two distinctive phases, i.e. 28 May 1998 through to 10 September 2001, and 11 September 2001 through to 1 May 2005 and onward. During the first phase, Japan leveled economic sanctions against Pakistan, which had severe implications for trade, investment, and aid. During the second phase, Japan gradually started lifting economic sanctions against Pakistan as a result of terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001 to gain Pakistan’s support to combat global terrorism. It is also argued here that both countries’ larger cooperation with the United States in war against global terrorism, once again, brought them closer onto a common platform and ultimately helped revive economic ties between them. It is also pointed out here that the future course of the Pakistan-Japan relationship can be promoted on these considerations in the post 9/11 period. However, after the United States signed a nuclear deal with India in 2005, a security drift has also taken place in Pakistan-Japan relations. Seemingly, indecisive at the moment, Japan has shown a marked inclination to cooperate with India on this matter. High level exchanges between them in 2006 and 2007 and their common desire to forge a global partnership to promote security, freedom, and economic relations, witnessed Japan’s willingness to approve the Indo-US nuclear deal. This chapter, therefore, throws light on Pakistan-Japan relations from 1998 through to 2007 in the areas of mutual diplomacy, economic relations, and issues related to regional and global security convergence and divergence between the two countries.
