Back to Strategic Competition? Assessing Japan’s Emerging China Policy under the Suga Administration

Abstract

While Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide pledged to loyally inherit Abe Shinzo’s foreign policy, his administration’s emerging policy has undergone a major shift in recent months. The new foreign policy has swayed from one that is relatively more independent and balanced to one that is more responsive to America’s competitive China policy, an intensive security agenda, tightened scrutiny of economic and technological cooperation with China, and open intervention in issues that China deems as domestic affairs. This article seeks to make an initial assessment of the nature, scope and prospects of the Suga administration’s China policy.