Assistance to both Vietnam and Cambodia began with a request for assistance that came from their respective governments. We assume that they felt they needed to learn from Japan. What do they expect from Japan? We asked Mr. Mitsuaki Mizuno, a Foreign Ministry Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Economic Cooperation Bureau Technological Cooperation Division.

I think they came to us because we revived our country in the aftermath of the war, through government guidance. Japan's postwar rehabilitation was due mainly to MITI's guidance on how Japan should develop its economy, guidance which was then followed by Japan's corporations. When these corporations became independent, the government detached itself. I think that was the way it was pursued. Currently, even a country in transition suddenly adopts a market economy, I don't think it functions very well. I think there are fears that if state enterprises suddenly transform themselves into private corporations, it will only produce a large number of unemployed and create social chaos. I think, from this perspective, other nations around us would like to learn from Japan on how to construct a legal framework when introducing market-oriented economic reforms.

Providing assistance in establishing a legal framework does not simply mean translating Japanese law. Whether for Cambodia or Vietnam, each nation needs to study and learn not only how the Japanese judicial system operates, but they also need to familiarize themselves with the legal systems of the Western countries.

Then, we need to listen to their opinions and help construct a legal framework that is comfortable with national conditions and meets the needs of the recipient countries. The main point of this aid is to develop the human resources of the recipient nation thereby allowing them to attain the ability to legislate themselves.
In an extreme situation, we could say that providing a translated version of our law is one method of cooperation. However, I do not believe that this can be categorized as the true meaning of technical cooperation. Instead, we need to be sure that the recipient country understands the meaning behind our legal system.

Accordingly, the recipient country must think for themselves as to how they can best adopt our legal framework for adaptation to their own country's needs. This year, Japan welcomes the celebration of a hundred years of enforcement of the Civil Law and the Commercial Law. Thus, we have accumulated a hundred years of knowledge, although I admit that within that hundred years of history, we might have failed in some cases. Nevertheless, even with mistakes, it is important to provide recipient countries with the benefits of our accumulated knowledge.
Rather than provide a translated version of our law, we should provide guidance on how to establish a legal framework. Our ideal form of cooperation is to let the recipient country stand on its own, once we have detached ourselves. I think this type of attitude would also be appreciated by the recipient country.