The leading role Japan played in convincing the Group of 20 major economies to almost double the resources of the International Monetary Fund highlighted Tokyo's fear of losing its global presence to emerging economies such as China.
When their two-day meeting ended Friday in Washington, Finance Minister Jun Azumi was praised by the other G-20 finance chiefs for quickly declaring Japan's contribution to the war chest of the multilateral lender, which is being pressured to reinforce the battle against the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.
"After all, we don't want to lose to China," a Japanese government official said. "We have already lost our lead to China, from gross domestic product to foreign-exchange reserves. There is concern about how we can assert Japan's presence" on the global stage.