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While Japan and the ASEAN states can celebrate the Golden Jubilees of the ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation and the Fukuda Doctrine, there is no room for complacency. Both sides must assiduously cultivate a closer and comprehensive relationship in the decades ahead for mutual support and benefits. A cordial and cooperative relationship will boost the capability of Japan and the ASEAN states to have greater agency to act autonomously in a new epoch threatening to suck them into the vortex of a New Cold War bipolarity between the competing US and Chinese superpowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2023, Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announced "Japan's New Plan for a 'Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP).'" Prior to this, in December 2022, the Kishida Cabinet revised the National Security Strategy and adopted the National Defense Strategy. The new National Security Strategy officially positioned the FOIP as a fundamental component of Japan's security strategy. Furthermore, the Kishida Cabinet has presented the New Plan as the first comprehensive outline of the specific policies that Japan will pursue under the initiative. The New Plan contains "four pillars of cooperation" with a total of 51 policies. Despite the expanded scope of security policies, the Kishida Cabinet emphasizes the diplomatic nature of the initiative, highlighting various agendas for cooperation in the region. This article illustrates how Prime Minister Kishida silently maintains and refines the strategic nature of the initiative with the New Plan in response to the growing presence and influence of China in the Indo-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2022, Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio announced a new defense posture of Japan and published the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy, and the Defense Buildup Program. He startled many by declaring that Japan would double its defense budget. It will make Japan's defense budget the biggest in the world only after the United States and China. He also announced that Japan will acquire serious counter offensive capabilities, namely intermediate range missiles. This big shift was not a choice, but a necessity, seeing China's tremendous and surprisingly speedy military buildup. China, oppressing not only Uighurs, Tibetans, and inner Mongolians domestically, but also suppressing freedom in Hong Kong and changing the status quo in the East and China Seas, took on the US allies by taking Scarborough Reef from the Philippines and sending Haijing patrol boats regularly to violate the territorial sea of the Senkaku Islands of Japan in 2012. This article explains the main points and background of the new Japanese strategic thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Committee's Measure and Plans for Policy Activities concerning Japan, formulated in March 1955, was China's first Japan Policy Platform after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It specified policy principles and measures. Its policy directed toward Japan could be called a "Japan neutralization" policy. There were three factors that contributed to the formulation of the Japan Policy Platform. The first factor was the start of full-fledged Japan-China private-sector exchanges and the CCP's aim to break away from a people's diplomacy toward Japan that centered on support for the Japanese Communist Party. The second factor was the major change in postwar Japanese politics with the resignation of the Yoshida Cabinet and the start of the Hatoyama Cabinet. The third factor was the change in foreign policy, with the reintroduction of the "Theory of Intermediate Zones" and the international environment, with the advent of the Sino-Soviet honeymoon period and the intensification of the US-China confrontation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aside from serious impact from the COVID pandemic, the Japanese economy has been experiencing sluggish growth for several decades, and its future prospects are not favorable mainly due to the declining population. One effective way for Japan to revive its economy and achieve growth is to expand and intensify its economic relationship with foreign countries, especially those in Asia, which are projected to continue high economic growth. To achieve the objective, Japan has to play an important role in establishing, managing and upgrading a free, open, transparent, rules-based business environment in Asia-Pacific in the form of mega-FTAs such as the CPTPP and RCEP, now that the United States withdrew from the TPP and China is actively attempting to construct a business environment suitable to its trade and investment practices. Japan needs to cooperate with Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries that share common interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]