Japans Quiet Leadership: Reshaping the Indo-Pacific [Paperback]

Why has Japan emerged from the lost decades unscathed from the populist wave and a far more consequential actor in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific? In answering this question,Japans Quiet Leadershipprovides a sweeping look at Japans domestic economic and political evolution, its economic statecraft, and the array of geopolitical challenges that have triggered a gradual but substantial shift in the countrys security profile. This deep dive into Japans trajectory over the last three decades underscores Japans hidden strengths in its democratic resilience, social stability, and proactive diplomacy; while reckoning with the profound challenges the nation faces: depopulation, rising inequality, voter disengagement, and threats to Asias long peace. The book traces the profound currents of change coursing through the Japanese polity and its external environment; and the myriad ways in which Japans experience has become more relevant to countries coping with slow growth, adverse demographics, adjustment to economic globalization, and the emergence of a powerful and assertive China.

This is a story of Japans reinvention as a network power to overcome the harsh realities of diminishing relative capabilities. In reshaping the Indo-Pacific, Tokyo deployed a robust economic strategy of trade integration and infrastructure finance; and a proactive security diplomacy cultivating new partnerships with regional and extra-regional actors and deepening the alliance with the United States. Nevertheless, acute geopolitical rifts, Japans pandemic insularity, and the securitization of international economic relations are testing Japans statecraft of connectivity. The tasks at home are no less pressing: delivering on the green, digital, and human capital transformations, avoiding the return of the politics of indecision at the helm of the nation, and fostering democratic dynamism. This book illuminates where the Japanese polity, economy, and people are headlÓ(