Japan’s soft power diplomacy at work in Egypt

Egypt and Japan would appear like a modern day oddcouple. What Cairo offers with intense doses of noise and chaos, Tokyo delivers in planning and precision. One would think a collaboration between the two would be nearly impossible, but that would be a mistaken assumption when observing developments underway on the outskirts of Cairo for the Grand Egypt Museum. While standing in the shadow of the imposing statue of Rameses II, the director-general of the museum project said they have found common ground sharing rich, albeit completely diverse histories.

“The Japanese culture is a very tradition bound culture, which is very similar to Egypt. So, it might seem that these cultures are very different but in terms of values, I think they are very much alike,” said Professor Tarek Tawfik, Director-General of the Grand Egypt Museum (GEM).

Those values are on full display at the GEM cultural complex, which is rapidly taking shape and scheduled to open in 2020 adjacent to the great pyramids of Giza. It has the firm backing of the Japan International Cooperation Agency with financial support of about three quarters of $1 billion.

During a weeklong trip to Cairo and Alexandria, we took an in-depth look at what could be called Japan’s art of diplomacy. The world’s third largest economy has been involved in Egypt since the 1950s and the early days of President Jamal Abdul Nasser, who chose state control of industry versus the free market.

Undeterred by fits and starts of reforms, Japan is renewing its soft power approach, with a combination of cultural and economic influence, that should help build up a reservoir of goodwill for decades to come. Under the moniker of the “Resilience Policy for the Middle East and North Africa”, Japan is supporting culture, development training and education in the political and security hotspots of the region.

Egypt, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan are the sites where we witnessed first-hand how Japan is out to steer a volatile region in the right direction.

A two-hour drive northwest of Cairo on the journey to old Alexandria one finds a sprawling work in progress called the Egypt Japan University of Science and Technology or EJUST. The university has produced 200 PhD and master’s degree graduates in engineering and business over the past eight years. “I would say it is soft power in education, research and development and collaboration. That power is invisible but very important to human development,” said Prof. Satoshi Goto, Vice-President for Research at E-JUST.

University officials told me it took five years to negotiate the structure for collaboration between the two governments but once contractual terms were agreed, JICA remained fully committed to the project despite the chaos triggered by the 2011 Arab Spring and the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood two years later.

The results speak for themselves. Regardless of the geopolitical uncertainty that the region continues to serve up to potential partners, whether in government or the private sector, they believe that targets can be met and that Egypt with a young and growing population of 95 million offers challenges but also a great deal of potential. “It simply says if you have a plan, stick to those plans, it will work. It’s not mission impossible; it is possible,” said Prof. Amr Eltawil, Dean of the School of Innovative Design Engineering at E-JUST.

He calls the window of 2011-13 a “necessary reboot” for Egyptian society, which is going through a wave of economic reforms under President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi coupled with a tight grip on security and a continuous crackdown on those who were active in the now banned Muslim Brotherhood. Al Sissi seems to have taken the view that stability is the top priority for international investors to return to the most populous country in the Middle East and North Africa with a stubbornly high poverty rate of 27 per cent.

Growth is pegged at 6 per cent for fiscal year 2018-19, just slightly below its peak before the Arab Spring, with foreign direct investment reforms beginning to generate traction.

Japan prefers a soft, but influential touch and through its work being conducted by JICA, it has a clear line of sight on whether this programme of reforms will succeed.

Due to its scale and importance in the Middle East, Prof. Goto told me the region will never be settled unless Egypt is stable. And while Japanese government programmes have remained engaged in the country and in the region, corporate Japan will want to see continuity of reforms to follow in the footsteps of their government’s efforts.