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Japan is the largest source of foreign direct investment into the Philippines, which has overtaken Thailand and Vietnam as the investment destination of choice among Japanese companies deploying a “China plus one” strategy to cope with rising labor costs in China. Japan is also the largest export market for the Philippines.

But Japan’s pleasure turned sour when Duterte later scheduled a trip to Beijing ahead of the one to Japan. That was a “huge disappointment for the Japanese,” said Heydarian, and left them feeling “a little bit snubbed.”

“The very fact that he chose China ahead of the US, and bogged down a scheduled visit to Tokyo in favor of Beijing, that says a lot about the pecking order of his strategic priorities,” said Heydarian. “The symbolics, the optics are astonishing.”

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In recent years China has been positioning itself to be able to exert more control over the South China Sea, for instance by building militarized islands atop reefs. For Tokyo the waterway represents the cheapest, most direct way for importing energy supplies from the Persian Gulf, and other commodities from elsewhere. As a nation with few natural resources, Japan has a clear interest in keeping sea routes open—and little interest in seeing the sea become a “Chinese lake,” as some analysts warn of happening.

Japan has every reason, in other words, to keep Duterte on its side, despite the snub. Indeed the Philippine leader looks set to win a bonanza in aid and loans from Tokyo this week, especially for the economic development of Mindanao, the large southern island where he served as mayor of Davao City for many years.

Whatever Japan gives him, though, his romance with China will likely intensify. In recent days he invited Chinese president Xi Jinping to visit the Philippines “at a convenient time.” Xi readily accepted the invitation.

http://qz.com/

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