The Indo-Pacific region serves as the transport corridor for energy, imports and exports for many of the world's leading trading nations, including Japan. Stretching from East Africa through the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the region is the central hub for global economic growth, innovation and potential security challenges today and the years ahead.
Middle powers such as Australia, Canada, France, India, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Japan need to chart out what their national and joint vision of the Indo-Pacific is, how they can work together to shape the region's evolution, and how they can negotiate the deepening Sino-U.S. rivalry which will grow in the region and complicate their respective bilateral relations with the United States and China.
Japan's place among the middle powers can be questioned. It is the third-largest economy in the world, its Self-Defense Forces are both powerful and work synergistically within the Japan-U.S. security alliance, and Japan is a technological and cultural superpower with global reach and influence.