Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he will pursue a more assertive foreign policy. That won't be easy, report the authors of this comprehensive survey of Japan's relations with its Asian neighbors. Domestic political inertia, Chinese dynamism and a focus on relations with the United States pose powerful obstacles for Japanese policymakers, conclude the contributors to this study, professors at the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, a U.S. Department of Defense school in Honolulu.
Japan's postwar foreign policy has rested on three pillars: the security alliance with the U.S., support for multilateral international institutions and relations with Asia. There has often been a tension between the first and the last as policymakers in Washington feared that Japan would create a bloc that would lock the U.S. out of a vital sphere of interest.
As editor Satu Limaye notes, "United States' opposition . . . likely inhibited Japan from making Asia an equal 'third stool' of its foreign and security policies." Difficulties were compounded by uncertainty among Japan's foreign policymakers: They were often divided on the question of whether all three deserved equal weight and attention.