Japan and Economic Regionalism in Asia

This chapter examines Japan’s commitments to economic regionalism to address two research questions: How has Japan committed to the development of regional institutions for managing economic affairs, and what factors have driven Japan to make commitments to economic regionalism in Asia? Japan has maintained an important status in developing regional institutions through commitments to the development of APEC, functional institutions under the ASEAN+3, and regional institutions for infrastructure investment. In such commitments, great power transition in the form of the rise of China and the waning of the United States constituted a crucial factor that encouraged Japan to adopt positive engagements. The Abe administration implemented measures for economic regionalism as responses to business interests, and dampened opposition from societal and political circles under the Kantei-centered policymaking system. Significantly, the Abe administration reformulated external economic policies by embedding them into a new diplomatic frame of proactive contribution to peace.