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Paper short abstract

This paper explores the transformation of Japan’s security alignment strategies with key Indo-Pacific and global actors in the post-Abe era. It argues that Japan is recalibrating its approach to emphasise issue-specific and pragmatic strategic partnerships, focused on selective coalition-building.

Paper long abstract

During the administration of former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe (2012–2020), Japan pursued a dual strategy of enhancing autonomous defence capabilities while simultaneously strengthening the Japan-US alliance. A third strategic pillar involved the expansion of security-oriented cooperative frameworks with a diverse array of partners at bilateral and minilateral levels, under the Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision. Security alignment has remained a key aspect of Japanese strategic thinking in the post-Abe era. The growing tensions with China, Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine and uncertainties of the US defence commitments to Japan under the second Donald J. Trump administration, along with the steady rise of new security threats, have elevated further the strategic significance to Tokyo of non-US partners.

The proposed paper explores the transformation of Japan’s security alignment strategies with key Indo-Pacific and global actors from 2020 to 2025, addressing both traditional and non-traditional security challenges. The paper contends that, as the international system gradually transitions toward a “multiplex” order characterised by the absence of a singular hegemon (Acharya 2018), Japan is recalibrating its approach to emphasise issue-specific and pragmatic strategic partnerships. In an environment marked by a plurality of actors, intricate interdependencies and fragmented governance, Japan has refined its engagement with four principal partners: Australia, which remains vital for conventional defence and deterrence, particularly as a safeguard against potential US disengagement; the Philippines, which is central to countering China’s influence in the South China Sea and Southeast Asia; India, which is instrumental in upholding the rules-based maritime order and serves as a counterbalance to China, with its ties to Russia further incentivising deeper cooperation; and the European Union, which embodies Japan’s global commitment to the Liberal International Order and the mitigation of hybrid threats, thereby linking the Indo-Pacific and Europe. Through a comparative analysis of Japan’s relations with these actors, the paper elucidates the emergence of focused defence and security cooperation that advances coalition-building. The findings underscore the significance of pragmatic, interest-driven alignments in the context of an ever more uncertain and rapidly changing global security environment.