Japan´s leadership in promoting regional security multilateralism

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• GGP: Global Governance Programme

Drawing on newly released official documents and extensive interviews, this presentation provides an overview of a quarter century of Japanese leadership in promoting regional security cooperation.

This presentation asks why, in the wake of the Cold War, Japan suddenly reversed years of steadfast opposition to security cooperation with its neighbours.

Long isolated and opposed to multilateral agreements, Japan proposed East Asia's first multilateral security forum in the early 1990s, emerging as a regional leader. It explores what led to this surprising about-face and offers a corrective to the misconception that Japan's security strategy is reactive to US pressure and unresponsive to its neighbours. 

Drawing on newly released official documents and extensive interviews, this presentation provides an overview of a quarter century of Japanese leadership in promoting regional security cooperation. It demonstrates that Japan has a much more nuanced relationship with its neighbours and has played a more significant leadership role in shaping East Asian security than has previously been recognised.