Globalization in East Asia and Contemporary Situation in Northeast Asian Societies

The East Asia and Pacific region continues to be an engine of global growth, contributing around 40 percent of global growth in 2012. Driven by strong domestic demand, the region grew at 7.5 percent in 2012 -- higher than any other region in the world. Economic interdependence in the countries of Northeast Asia is getting stronger.Needless to say, the center of economic development is China.  For Japan, economic importance of China has increased every year.  China is the largest trading partner for Japan now. Japanese population who live in Shanghai is estimated to 100,000, which is greater than New York. Chinese has become the biggest bloc of foreign residents in Japan in 2007, overtaking Koreans, which has been the biggest bloc in Japan in the postwar period. In rural and remote areas, Chinese workers called Foreign Trainees and Technical Intern are an essential labor force to support the local economy since the 1990s. 

  Although North Western countries share common economic interests, political tensions both between Japan and China, and between Japan and Korea frequently occur in the 2000s. Japan and China are strongly opposed to each other over the territorial problem. Japan and Korea are opposed to each other over the territorial problem and the understanding of history. In the near-to-mid term, it seems that there is no hope for building the East Asian Community. 

  Japan and China 's relationship is often described as comprising "Cold politics and hot economics".It can be said the same for Japan  and Korea's relationship. The problem is that violation of human rights may be prone to happen upon foreign residents from North Eastern countries under the situation of "Cold politics and hot economics", as is recently observed in hate speech against foreigners from Korean.