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This article is a theoretically grounded empirical contribution aimed at shedding light on Japan's policy stance on East Asian neo-regionalism. It aims to examine the recent region-building process in East Asia. The dynamics in East Asia suggest that regional institutionalization, brought about by norm diffusion based on the idea of neo-regionalism, is likely to follow a progressive and evolutionary trajectory through the institutionalization of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) + 3 (South Korea, Japan and China). It provides a wide spectrum of regional-integrationist perspectives in order to offer as full a picture as possible of Japan's role in promoting regional integration in East Asia. The key finding of this article is that Japan has changed from a being “reluctant”, to becoming a “proactive” state in the context of regional collaboration in East Asia.

The East Asian crisis was a catalyst for changing Japan's regional position and leadership role and therefore had significant implications for Japan's geo-political and economic relationship with East Asia. The Japanese government maintained the ‘developmental state’ approach in collaborating with the economic restructuring programmes in major East Asian countries after the crisis. Japanese responses to the crisis had significant implications for East Asian regional integration. They clearly indicated the shift in Japan's behaviour and the emergence of a regional leadership role in promoting regional integration in East Asia. This suggests that Japanese confidence in the validity of the developmental state concept prompted the government to reconsider its pro-active role in the establishment of an ASEAN +3 Summit.