Japan’s Grand Strategy for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific

There are two major objectives in Japan’s grand strategy: to maintain the balance of power in the face of a rising China, and to bring about economic prosperity, peace, and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. To achieve these objectives, Japan is strengthening its defense capabilities, security ties with the United States, and security partnerships with the countries such as Australia, India, Southeast Asian nations, and South Korea; it also seeks to promote the rule of law, freedom of navigation, and free trade; enhance connectivity; and provide capacity-building assistance to regional partners. Japan’s vision of Free and Open Indo-Pacific has evolved over time. In 2018 the Japanese government desecuritized its FOIP concept in order to ease China’s concern and to make the policy more acceptable to China’s neighbors. It also stopped emphasizing the importance of “universal values” so that countries such as Vietnam and Myanmar could sign up for it. Those decisions indicate that Japan’s guiding principle is based more on realist calculations than liberal ideologies.