Reconciling Asianism with Bilateralism: Japan and the East Asia Summit

During the Cold war period, Japan’s diplomacy in East Asia was shaped by the principles underpinning the Yoshida doctrine, the grand strategy that provided a durable framework for Japan’s foreign policy in the postwar era. While subordinating its relations with East Asia to the norm of bilateralism (i.e., prioritization of security and economic ties with the United States), Japan gradually extended its political, economic and security presence in the region. In 1989, the end of superpower rivalry called into question the hitherto dominant pattern of Japan’s relations with East Asia. On the one hand, the organizing principles of Pax americana were challenged by the change in the structure of the international system. On the other hand, Japan was confronted with the hard task of bringing together economic benefits from cooperating with China with the security gains from alliance with the United States. Interesting insights to understand how Japan’s Asia policy responded to the complex environment of the post-Cold war order can be gained by looking at the role Japanese policy-making agents assumed in the establishment of the East Asia Summit (EAS). In the early stages of the debate revolving around EAS, the new regionalistic project was mainly conceived as a gathering leading to the creation of an East Asian Community (EAC) that would not necessarily present a transpacific character. Such a view was completely at odd with the principles of openness and inclusiveness that had so far driven Japan’s role within the political, economic and security integration of East Asia. More specifically, this view brought into question Japan’s alignment with the US strategic interests in the region. The aim of this paper is to examine Japan’s role in the EAS/EAC debate in order to assess whether the peculiar combination of Asianism and bilateralism underpinning Japan’s diplomacy in East Asia during the Cold war era is still viable in the post-bipolar regional environment. In the first section of the article, I survey the evolution of Japan’s official discourse on the East Asia Summit and the East Asia Community (EAC). In the second section, I try to identify the main drivers behind Japan’s decision to join the EAS, explaining how Tokyo’s role within the initiative is indicative of a new emerging pattern of Japan’s relations with East Asia. Finally, I suggest that Tokyo’s enthusiast response to the East Asia Community project is symptomatic of an adaptive strategy intended to reconcile Asianism and bilateralism in a manner compatible with U.S. regional and global interests.