Japanese aspirations for the Indo-Pacific economic order

Since the 1960s, postwar Japan has been trying in various ways to define its role as a regional power. While its goal of achieving economic and political stability via regional cooperation has been fairly consistent, the definition of “region” has shifted at multiple points in response to political and economic trends and events of the day. To complicate matters further, government and business elites have often defined Japan’s region in multiple ways at the same time. Today, one of Japan’s key competing visions of region is the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP), made up of a partially-contiguous geography that spans three continents, from India to the west to the United States to the east and Australia to the south. The FOIP reflects patterns of inclusion and exclusion that reflect political and security imperatives more than economic integration. This marks an important shift in Japan’s regional strategy, which had long elevated economic considerations above security concerns.