The post-Cold War euphoria of the triumph of liberal democracy did not persist. In an era of resurgent struggles over “geography and history” and the rise of China as a new destabilizing factor, what has been the thinking of Japanese diplomacy and how has it been behaving?   Iokibe Makoto, Chancellor of University of Hyogo   Globalization and regional identity In October 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, the Communist regime of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe collapsed in an avalanche-like fashion, and the long-lived bipolar order under the Cold War ended. The antagonism between two camps headed by two nuclear powers ended and people expressed naïve expectations of the creation of one peaceful world. Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History and the Last Man, trying to depict the ultimate victory of liberal democracy and market economy as history unfolding. However, suffering ... ... [Read more]

  Okamoto Takashi, Professor, Kyoto Prefectural University   China, “emperors,” and “empire” Regarding China as an “empire” and its supreme leader Xi Jinping as an “emperor” seems to be a common idea in both East and West. A Western magazine I saw a long time ago also used a photo of Xi Jinping wearing a traditional Chinese emperor costume on its cover. The autocrat, meaning the “emperor” of an “empire” who reigns supreme over vast territories, is probably the most obvious image of the modern Chinese leader both in China and abroad. Of course, Xi Jinping and the other Chinese leaders are not emperors in history. There is no hereditary rule and they have terms of office. Reign and tenure in themselves are not the same. The system is indeed one that was created by denying the earlier imperial system. If we are to ... ... [Read more]

  The vast majority of the daily media coverage on Ukraine originates from Western media outlets. However, there are many international opinions that are not reflected in these media reports. This article examines the various views held by non-G7 nations in light of the historical context from which they emerged.   Haneda Masashi, Director of Tokyo College, The University of Tokyo   In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, the Tokyo College of the University of Tokyo, where I serve as director, initiated an interview series in April entitled “The Ukraine Crisis: Perspectives From Around the World.” We invited researchers whose primary geographical areas of expertise are the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, China, Southeast Asia, and Latin America to comment on how the Russian invasion is perceived in their respective research regions. The video recordings of the ... ... [Read more]

Hayashi Yoshimasa (Foreign Minister of Japan) and Tanaka Akihiko (President of GRIPS)     Photos: Watanabe Shigeki (Discuss Japan note: This interview was held on December 23, 2021 and the transcript was finalized on January 18, 2022) Tanaka Akihiko: Two months have passed since you assumed the post of foreign minister. Seeing that you have held many ministerial portfolios in the past, what are your impressions? Hayashi Yoshimasa: I anticipated it to some degree, but it has been extremely busy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) deals with various domestic policies at the meta level, so to speak, and implements them externally. There are also many partners and multilateral frameworks. It is different from other ministries and government offices in the sense that you have to some degree apply a meta-perspective to the work since there is no end to the fine detail. The proportion ... ... [Read more]

One in ten people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition, while one in three people have excessive nutritional intake or are obese. To overcome this polarized situation, the experience of modern Japan is being presented and shared with the world as “nutrition policy.” This article considers Japan’s new international contributions from the perspective of nutritional science.   Nakamura Teiji, President, the Japan Dietetic Association   In the mid-18th century, since humans suffer harm and sometimes even lose their lives from starvation and unbalanced diets, European scientists thought that there must surely be special ingredients in food that determine life and health. Nutritional science is the scientific development of these ideas. Scientists discovered the components of food that are the energy source of life and compose the human body, and which are related to metabolism, and named these nutrients. Meanwhile, foods containing these ... ... [Read more]

Japan should maintain the high standards of the CPTPP, and engage in negotiations with China and Taiwan in order to reach the destination of the FTAAP in the midst of a “fight” between China and Taiwan. Japan should also make the best effort to establish autonomous enforcement mechanisms for the agreement premised on US absence   Kawase Tsuyoshi, Professor, Sophia University   In September 2021, Taiwan and China successively submitted applications to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP or TPP11). The TPP framework was originally intended to contain China and to pave the way for the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) led by the United States, but the character of the framework changed significantly when it was revived as the CPTPP with Chinese official application for accession in 2021 after the US withdrawal in 2017. In Japan, ... ... [Read more]

Watanabe Tsuneo, Senior Fellow, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation What is China’s intention with its CPTPP bid? On 5 September, 2021, AUKUS, a defense and security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States announced that it would supply Australia with the technology for nuclear submarines. The next day, China applied for membership in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, a trade agreement of eleven countries from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), minus the USA). In a 23 September column in the Washington Post, famous US journalist Fareed Zakaria called China’s actions political “jiu-jitsu” and encouraged the US public to take note. In Zakaria’s opinion, China deftly fired back against AUKUS’ bold move and set the groundwork for a CPTPP bid. This was a far-sighted comment by Zakaria. After his call to attention, Japan and the United States disputed over how ... ... [Read more]

Fukuda Yasuo, former Prime Minister of Japan Interviewed by Tanaka Akihiko, President of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)   Tanaka Akihiko: On September 11, 2001, a series of terror attacks occurred in the United States. Subsequently, the world entered the age of “fight against terrors.” It was six months after the Koizumi Administration had been launched. As the then Chief Cabinet Secretary, you were at the heart of that administration, so how did you interpret these events at the time?   Fukuda Yasuo: It was around ten at night when the first report of the terror attacks reached me, amidst a meeting with media representatives. The report was that a plane had hit one of the New York World Trade Center buildings. At first, I thought it was an accident, but just as I left for home, I received news that ... ... [Read more]

Takagi Yusuke, Associate Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies   The basic goal of the Southeast Asian countries’ strategy for China is to maintain strategic autonomy and aim for economic prosperity amid the US-China conflict. They cannot ignore the US-China conflict in terms of either supply chains or the security environment. Cooperation with countries outside of Southeast Asia is also essential for both budget and technology reasons if they wish to strengthen their defensive capabilities. In this article, I first give an overview of China’s presence based on a survey [The State of Southeast Asia: 2021 Survey Report] conducted by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore. Next, I examine how the South China Sea situation, which is one of the reasons for concern about China, was discussed by the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) ... ... [Read more]

Sahashi Ryo, Associate professor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo   Not much longer than a half year since its inception, it has already become evident that China is at the core of the Biden administration’s global strategy. Moreover, it is talking about rebuilding US-Europe relations and the international cooperation system, take on the climate crisis, and stop the retreat of global democracy. The Democratic Party’s left wing has called for an exploration of internationalism that does not overemphasize military affairs, while the Biden administration criticizes the diplomacy of the Trump era and stresses the revival of US leadership.  On March 3 in 2021, the Biden administration released “Interim National Security Strategic Guidance” as a provisional version of the “National Security Strategy” (NSS). In the guidance, China is described as the “only competitor,” paying more attention to China than to Russia. ... ... [Read more]