It’s not that I don’t think geopolitical fears of Beijing’s rise are driving Tokyo’s drive to sign civilian nuclear deals with India, but that Joshua Keating talks about everything but Japan, Inc.’s pressure to compete against its foreign rivals. And, why make hay of anti-nuclear sentiment in Japan; can it really stop a deal?

Japan’s willingness to cooperate on nuclear energy with India is a pretty good indication of how China’s military and economic rise has changed the equation for its neighbors.

The very article Keating produces is mostly about international corporate competition in the nuclear industry, not about nukes.

The India-Japan nuclear deal has a lot riding on it. Quite apart from a strong strategic statement, the deal will give top Japanese nuclear companies, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Marubeni a foothold in the Indian nuclear energy sector. At least three of these companies are tied up with GE, Areva and Westinghouse respectively, all of whom have been allotted nuclear parks in India.

However, sources clarified that even if the India-Japan agreement gets delayed, it will not have any effect on these joint ventures accessing Japanese technology for India’s reactors.

(…)

On the other hand, India is well on its way to negotiating a similar civil nuclear agreement with South Korea, which has emerged as a strong competitor in the nuclear business, having pipped established Japanese and French players in swiping a UAE nuclear contract. This development has clearly spooked the Japanese. Until recently, it was only Japan Steel Works which had a monopoly on manufacturing the containment vessel for a nuclear reactor in a single fused piece of steel, reducing risks of leakages. But Korea’s Doosan may prove to be a worthy competitor.

India wants to partner Japan in mastering and marketing closed fuel cycle reactors — fast-breeder reactors (FBRs) — as the second generation nuclear power plants, which are touted as “proliferation free.” This is India’s nuclear dream — and, officials are looking at what they believe is an easy complementarity.

As Japan slips to third place behnd China in the global economic stakes, India will tell Japan there is a lot more to a strategic partnership than a CTBT signature.

It’s ironic, that where anti-nuclear sentiment is so earnestly strong, nuclear energy is what Japan has left to export. But, don’t get me wrong: I’m not opposed to nuclear energy. I AM opposed to rewarding New Delhi. It just all goes to show, that shoring up international treaties requires more than diplomatic niceties, but also the realities of corporate competition.

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Filed under: Business/Economy, East Asia, Energy, IGOs, Korea, South Asia, WMD Tagged: areva, hitachi, indiam china, japan, katsuya okada, marubeni, mitsubishi, npt, nsg, nukes, prc, South Korea, toshiba, westinghouse