ABSTRACT

Although Indonesia and the Philippines are in many ways very different, Japanese capital has increasingly thrown them into the same (sinking) boat . Both were primary targets of Japan's raw material scramble in the 1970s, and Japanese capital's primary interest in both remains in food production and raw materials . In spite of offering the lowest wages in ASEAN, neither Indonesia nor the Philippines has been able to rekindle much interest from Japan following their crises in the mid-1980s , resulting respectively from the slump in oil prices and the growing political-economic crisis that ended in the fall of Marcos. Both countries have thus been excluded from the surge of interest in ASEAN that started in 1987 . Instead , Japanese capital has remained cautious , apparently still licking some of the wounds resulting from its excessive zeal in the 1970s and early 1980s , when it led rather than followed the example of the other powers .

INDONESIA