ABSTRACT
The conventional view of Japan’s Middle East policy is that it did not exist before 1973 and that it then became strongly pro-Arab because of the impact of the oil weapon. This chapter suggests a modification which stresses the continuity in Japan’s policy rather than the changes over the postwar period. Japanese dependence on Arab oil may have actually increased since 1973 due to the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq-Iran war. One aspect of Japanese foreign policy was a deliberate shift of trade and investment policy. The Iranian Revolution and resulting oil crisis in 1979 weakened the Japanese confidence that they could bargain money and technology for oil in a relatively non-political manner. Economically the Japanese promised huge amounts of financial assistance to Middle Eastern countries. The oil crisis had major short-term effects on Japan, but in the longer run it seems to have merely confirmed to the Japanese the wisdom of their earlier strategy.
