In keeping with the "border-crossing" conference theme, this panel engages the topic of Japanese-Philippine relations from an integration of theoretical, thematic, disciplinary, and geographic perspectives. Previous discussions on this topic had tended to focus on traditional centers of power, e.g. Tokyo or Manila, or treaties between governments. The results often failed to open up new vistas of learning or advance the state of knowledge on Philippines-Japan studies.

To talk about a "relationship" is always difficult. This proposal seeks to explore novel ways of intellectual engagement and critical thinking that will significantly challenge our conventional understanding of the subject. Using primary sources (in Japanese and Filipino language), the panel aims to probe relations between Japan and the Philippines in the American colonial period (1900–1946), using as a framework four sets of interrelated themes: (1) historical dimensions, especially the nascent diplomatic relationship between Japan and the Philippines during the Second World War; (2) economic factors, e.g. the "intra-Asian trade" among China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, especially after the rise of Japanese industrialization; (3) the critical role of the Kobe-Osaka corridor (as against the Tokyo-Yokohama metropole) in forging not only economic but also social relations with the Philippines; and (4) the political dynamics of U.S.-Japan-Philippines relationships in the first half of the 20th century.

The disciplines that are expected to be synthesized by the panel discussion are economics, anthropology, political science, and history. The four presenters are prominent Japanese and Filipino scholars, whose original research is bound to elicit lively audience participation and meaningful exchange on the topic.

Yoshiko Nagano, Kanagawa University

This presentation will depict the role of Japan in Philippine foreign trade and aims to analyze three points. First, it will show how Japanese trade interests in the Philippines changed after the rise of Japanese industrialization in the Meiji period. Second, it will examine whether Japan played an active role in Anglo-American rivalry in Philippine foreign trade in the 1910s and 1920s. And third, it will discuss the phenomenal Japanese textile exports to the Philippines in the 1930s relative to Japan’s economic involvement in other Asian countries.

Shinzo Hayase, Osaka City University

This paper aims to clarify the role that Kobe-Osaka, West Japan, played in promoting socio-economic relations between Japan and the Philippines. There were 30,000 Japanese residents in the Philippines on the eve of World War II, mostly in Davao’s abaca (Manila hemp) plantations. They were employed by two plantation companies originally from Kobe-Osaka. The relations between Japan and the Philippines, focused on Kobe-Osaka, were quite different from that which developed with politically-oriented Tokyo. This should therefore broaden our conventional notions of the relations between the two countries beyond the Manila-Tokyo line.

Ricardo T. Jose, University of the Philippines

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, the Philippine Commonwealth and U.S. government rejected the Laurel "puppet" government sponsored by the Japanese. This paper will explore the thesis that the experience of Laurel and other Filipino political leaders during the Japanese occupation did lead to nascent diplomatic relations, not just between the Philippines and Japan, but also between the Philippines and Southeast Asia, whose overtones would be felt in the years following the Second World War.

Lydia N. Yu-Jose, Ateneo de Manila University