Japan’s Approach to Free and Open Indo-Pacific / Maiko ICHIHARA

Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration : Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads

Japan’s Approach to Free and Open Indo-Pacific
Maiko ICHIHARA, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, and visiting scholar at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

This presentation looks at Japan’s approach to the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, and analyzes that Japan promotes liberal values with an incrementalist and pluralistic approach. Japan is uniquely positioned to operate in the diplomatic space between the value-laden approach of Western democracies and the realities of governance in the Asia-Pacific. It can use its influence in governments around the Asia-Pacific to help promote the agenda of liberal democracies in a way that is appropriate for the country in question. Finally, I suggest that without substance, Japan’s values-oriented diplomacy could crumble, and Japanese policymakers should do more to ensure that a mismatch between rhetoric and action does not end up undermining Japan’s diplomatic efforts.

 

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Session 4 / Geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific : The Intersecting Interests of Other Major Powers
Chair : Dr. Claire, Thị Liên TRẦN, IRASEC/Univ de Paris

These last 15 years, other great powers have redefined their strategy in the region, replacing the concept of Asia-Pacific to the one of Indo-Pacific. Indeed, the region involves the intersecting interests of two other major powers - Japan and the United States - and significant middle players – Australia and South Korea as well as Western players – the European Union and Russia. The session intends to highlight their perspectives on the Indo-Pacific definition, with the aim to manage the China’s rise in the regional order. How did these great powers, which have dominated the Asia-Pacific era, reposition themselves in this new Indo-Pacific architecture. How do they manage their influencing diplomacy and partnership building, as well as their strategical and security priorities ? Will the region’s future be dominated by competition or develop in a more cooperative way in this growing economic and strategic super-region connecting two oceans ?

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“Asia’s Post-Pandemic Order and Integration : Outlook of ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific at Crossroads” is an international conference organized by The Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC-CNRS) with the ASEAN Studies Center (Chulalongkorn University) in Bangkok, and the ASEAN-India Centre (AIC), RIS in New Delhi.
8-9 July 2021 - Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok