Japan and NZ: Five things to know

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is heading overseas for her first international trip in two years.  

On April 18 2022 Ardern – alongside Minister for Trade Damien O’Connor and 13 business leaders – will undertake her first overseas trip since 2020. The delegation will travel to both Singapore and Japan for a six-day trip, returning on April 24. 

The trip will aim to reconnect New Zealand with both countries, following Covid-era travel restrictions. In Japan, Ardern will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the first time - he became Prime Minister in October 2021.

The history between New Zealand and Japan spans over a century. 

Back when New Zealand was part of the British Empire, we formed relations with Japan.  In 1898 Arthur Stanhope Aldrich was appointed as an honorary consul in New Zealand after retiring from a career in the Japanese civil service. In the 1920s, Japan and New Zealand had provisional arrangement concerning commerce, customs and navigation, and there was even a Japanese embassy in Wellington by 1938 – closing in 1942, however, when Japan entered WWII.

Things then got wobbly, but within two decades the two countries were back on track. Now, Japan and New Zealand have enjoyed over 60 years of unbroken relations.

Here's five key things you need to know about New Zealand’s relationship with Japan.

It got off to a rough start

Many will be aware New Zealand, along with the rest of the allied forces, fought against Japan during WWII – primarily in Singapore and Solomon Islands. Both New Zealand and Australia favoured a harsh peace treaty following victory over Japan in 1945.

After the war the Americans wanted Japan to remain strong as a barrier to the spread of communism in East Asia. New Zealand and Australia worried that a resurgent Japan could again threaten the region. The ANZUS treaty was signed in 1951 to reassure the two countries that they would be protected and bolster their support for the anti-communist cause.

In 1952, diplomatic relations between New Zealand and Japan began. A commercial treaty was signed in 1958, meaning we have now had over 60 years of successful trade relations together.

Trade is now in the billions

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand’s goods exports to Japan in Quarter 4 of 2021 were NZ$969 million, up 30 percent compared to Q4 2020. On an annual basis (January-December 2021), goods exports were up 1.5 percent on 2020, totalling NZ$3.6 billion – a record high since 2002. The key industries profiting from this are fruit, aluminium, dairy, and wood. Pre-Covid, travel was another huge industry for us from Japan. 

New Zealand goods imports from Japan for Q4 2021 increased by 33 percent year-on-year to $1.2 billion, with continued strong demand for vehicles (up 34 percent to $774 million), with the top imports to New Zealand being cars and car parts, mechanical machinery, and petrol. This makes Japan our fifth-largest trading partner.

New Zealand and Japan are both in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), allowing for free trade. Tariffs on New Zealand beef exports, for example, will gradually fall to nine percent by 2033 under the CPTPP (in 2018 they were 38.5 percent). Tariffs on cheese and seafood will nearly be eliminated entirely.

Whaling remains an area of disagreement

By and large, New Zealand and Japan share similar views on global issues such as human rights, military ties, and general disarmament. In fact, both countries successfully walk the “tightrope” of modern geo-politics: keeping both the West and China on side. However, one issue the two nations have continued to disagree on for all these years is whaling.

New Zealand has long-opposed Japan’s commercial whaling in the Pacific Ocean, and the New Zealand government tries to influence the actions of the Japanese whaling industry through dialogue and diplomacy. Since 2018, whaling in the Southern Ocean (the waters surrounding Antarctica) has ceased after Japan stopped hunting whales there.

Japan is the most friendly Asian nation for Kiwis

According to Asia New Zealand Foundation’s 2021 report “Perceptions of Asia”, Japan is the friendliest nation towards New Zealand in all of Asia. 71 percent of Kiwis believe Japan and the Japanese to have a positive attitude to NZ. It’s described as the “friendliest non-English speaking nation” in the world.

New Zealand and Japan share over 40 sister city relationships, the oldest of which - Christchurch and Kurashiki City - was established in 1973. Japan Day is a large cultural festival in New Zealand, we share a mutual love of sport (including rugby), and in 2011 our relationship was strengthened with genuine empathy when both countries suffered catastrophic earthquakes.

Tokyo’s major airports, Haneda and Narita, are also transit hubs for New Zealanders between our side of the world and Europe.

Travel will be back  

Throughout the pandemic of the last two years, Air New Zealand has operated just one flight a week between New Zealand and Japan (Auckland-Narita). From 2 May 2022, as a visa-waiver nation, Japan and its citizens will be welcomed back to New Zealand without MIQ.

From 4 July 2022 to 29 October 2022, Air New Zealand will operate three return flights a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). Pre-Covid, Japan was New Zealand's second-largest Asian visitor market, contributing around $266 million to New Zealand's economy each year.

The Prime Minister’s visit to Japan in April 2022 is largely centred around our “open for business” mantra to tourism, hoping to encourage the Japanese to make to trip south.  However, Japan’s borders remain quite sealed for non-citizens with few exceptions. Post Tokyo-2020 Olympics, it has really only allowed a slow drip of students and business travellers to enter the country if they don’t hold a Japanese passport.

It’s unclear when New Zealand tourists will be able to return, and “until then”, according to Japan’s cultural affairs agency which assisted in the creation of japan.travel, the official Japan tourism website for Australians and New Zealanders, “we’re promoting Japan’s charms online.”

 - Asia Media Centre