What Lies Ahead for ASEAN-Japan Cooperation?

On January 10, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi delivered a key, high-profile policy speech on Tokyo’s approach to Southeast Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia after a tour of key regional countries. The speech highlighted what lies ahead for Japan’s collaboration with ASEAN and Southeast Asia within Tokyo’s broader foreign policy approach.

Japan has had a long-standing role in engaging Southeast Asia across a range of areas, including trade, education, and maritime security. But under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s leadership, Tokyo has significantly expanded its role in the region across the board in recognition of the need to diversify economic ties and also to engage in the part of the wider Indo-Pacific region where Japanese interests will be shaped, be it on standards around infrastructure projects or the advancement of the rule of law in the maritime domain.

As a result, we have seen major gains in Japan’s ties with Southeast Asia over the past few years, including the advancement of quality infrastructure, expansions in capacity-building, and even new defense exercises and military equipment transfers. Additionally, Southeast Asia and ASEAN have also factored into Japan’s wider approach to the Indo-Pacific – a vision that Abe championed dating back to his previous tenure as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 – which has created opportunities for synergies with other like-minded allies and partners, including the United States.

But Japan has also been keen on continuing to emphasize that the momentum in Japan-Southeast Asia ties is set to continue into 2020 as well. In November last year, Japan rolled out initiatives focused on several areas with ASEAN, including on advancing connectivity and defense with the sequel to its earlier launched Vientiane Vision. In an end-of-year press conference in late December, Motegi explained to reporters that he had decided to choose Southeast Asia for his first overseas visits of 2020 in order to reinforce the fact that “the Southeast Asian countries are important partners of Japan, and are also in a region that is key for realizing a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Motegi’s January 10 speech at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, the headquarters for the regional organization, capped his Southeast Asia trip. The address, which came after his visits to four Southeast Asian countries – Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia – was meant to underscore Japan’s commitment to Southeast Asia and ASEAN. Given that it was Motegi’s first high-profile speech on ASEAN, the address was widely anticipated in the region.

In terms of substance, as expected, Motegi’s ASEAN Secretariat speech reinforced several key ongoing aspects of Japan’s role in Southeast Asia. Economically, for instance, he reiterated Japan’s commitment to delivering on quality infrastructure and sustainable development through the mobilization of $3 billion from the public and private sectors between 2020-2022 covering areas including green investment and women’s empowerment. And from a wider geopolitical perspective, he noted convergences between Japan’s Indo-Pacific approach and ASEAN’s Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP), a document that the regional organization finally issued last June after some debate and discussion about the impact of the Indo-Pacific concept on regional order and ASEAN’s much-prized centrality role within it.

But beyond just listing off a series of programmatic areas of focus, Motegi also stressed the spirit of mutual cooperation and reciprocity that has served ASEAN-Japan cooperation well. He noted common areas of interest as well as the spirit of “gotong royong,” roughly translated as working together, which was popularized by Indonesia’s founding President Sukarno as a way of characterizing how Indonesia’s principles of the nation worked together. While Motegi did not dwell on the contrast of Japan’s approach to China’s in his speech itself, the difference had already arguably been made clear from the fact that, during his visit, Indonesia was still embroiled in a spat with China over the Natunas that had again reinforced Beijing’s assertiveness in the maritime domain.

Indications immediately after the speech suggested that Motegi’s address as well as his engagement of ASEAN more generally was well-received. Motegi’s mention of “gotong royong,” which was also highlighted by Japan’s ambassador to ASEAN, Akira Chiba, was welcomed in Indonesia and actually made the headlines in several Indonesian newspapers. In terms of ASEAN more generally, ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi, for his part, noted after his meeting with Motegi that since the establishment of the ASEAN-Japan dialogue partnership nearly a half century ago, Japan had invested in what he called “one of the most substantive and comprehensive partnerships of ASEAN which has contributed significantly to the development and promotion of peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.”

To be sure, while Motegi’s speech itself naturally focused on areas of progress and promise for Japan’s engagement with Southeast Asia and ASEAN, there are lingering challenges that remain for ties. On Japan’s end, resourcing connectivity efforts and breaking ground on some projects has at times been slower than anticipated, which is partly why Motegi was keen to emphasize that concrete realization was Tokyo’s focus moving forward. And with respect to Southeast Asia itself, engaging the region has proven challenging for Japan because of trends and developments in Southeast Asia, including China’s growing presence, setbacks to human rights and democracy seen in countries like Cambodia and Myanmar, and challenges to the centrality of ASEAN itself within the Asian regional order.

That said, Motegi’s visit to the region and his speech at the ASEAN Secretariat nonetheless reinforced Japan’s desire to continue to press for more inroads in its ties with Southeast Asia and ASEAN. In that sense, how Japan’s new foreign minister shapes Tokyo’s engagement in the region will continue to be important to watch amid Japan’s other foreign policy priorities and developments within Southeast Asia.