Introduction: Japan's pivot in Asia

Extract

When we first conceived this project in early 2015, it had already become clear that Japan had started to diversify its strategic relationships and to explore pathways towards greater strategic independence. Tokyo's complex relations with China and the United States—its two most important bilateral relationships—were fraught with knotty, albeit different, problems. Relations with China, the rapidly emerging power just offshore, were often characterized as economically hot, but politically cold, while the United States, Japan's longstanding security guarantor, was bogged down in—and distracted by—wars in the Middle East. Faith in the benefits of economic interdependence and alliance rhetoric aside, many Japanese strategists questioned how long they could count on China for their nation's prosperity and on Washington for credible commitment to Japan's defence and provision of regional stability. So, with the generous support of the Einstein Foundation Berlin, we assembled a talented group of scholars from Europe, Japan, America and Australasia at the Freie Universität Berlin to address these strategic issues.