ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1962, when I first visited Tokyo, there were three Japanese economists I was anxious to meet, since each was involved with issues of Asian economic cooperation. The first was Kyoshi Kojima, one of a handful who even then were working on Pacific-area free trade issues. Another was Dr Saburo Okita, then Director of Japan’s Economic Planning Bureau, and one of the intellectual godfathers of Japan’s post-war economic recovery. Years later, as Foreign Minister, he was instrumental in the steps that led to APEC. Finally, in Bangkok, I met with Professor Hiroshi Kitamura, who as research chief at “ECAFE” (the United Nations Asian economic headquarters),1 was doing some of the spade work on Asian regionalism. They were the originators of the concept with which this chapter is concerned, and a few words about each are warranted.
