The Japanese Defense Minister visited Indonesia and the Philippines

A significant event in the formation of both Japan’s postwar foreign policy and the situation in the critically important Southeast Asian subregion was Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s tour to Indonesia and the Philippines in early May.

Japan is once again “moving southwest.”

In the postwar period, the gradual resumption of the “move to the southwest” was primarily achieved (for obvious reasons) by exploiting the rapidly growing economy. In other words, the “Akamatsu Doctrine” concept of “Asia for the Asians” finally began to be realized. This is largely why the “first wave of Asian tigers” emerged, including South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Moreover, the economic development of the PRC, which began in the 1960s, was also largely due to the restoration of relations with Japan. This, incidentally, alarmed Washington, where the very fact of the covert development of Japanese-Chinese relations, even in the absence of such relations at the diplomatic level, was viewed as little short of betrayal by the new ally-former enemy. The signing of the US-China “Shanghai Communique” in 1972 was largely driven by considerations of preempting (but certainly not solely) the establishment of relations with China.

As for Japan’s renewed “southwestward movement,” the military component has once again become prominent with the “normalization” process that began two decades ago. Defense Minister S. Koizumi’s much-discussed tour to Southeast Asia should be seen as part of this trend.

Japanese Defense........

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