AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies
IIPS

RIPSInstitute for International

The Japan Institute ofResearch Institute for

Policy Studies

International Affairs

Peace and Security

Editorial Advisory Board:

No. 222

Akio Watanabe (Chair)
Masashi Nishihara
Yoshiji Nogami
Taizo Yakushiji

17 December 2015

Editorial Committee:
Taizo Yakushiji
Hisayoshi Ina
Tsutomu Kikuchi
Shujiro Urata andNobutaka Maekawa

PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES FOR
THE ASEAN SOCIO-CULTURALCOMMUNITY (ASCC)
Motoko Shuto

Editor & Online Publisher:
Yoshji Nogami
President, JIIA・ ASCC aims to create a people-centered
ASEAN community, but it is left to the discretionof each state to decide who can be counted as
its "people."・ Since the ASCC Blueprint was adopted in 2009,
many new programs are in progress,
particularly in higher education and disastermanagement.
・ Internationalization
andregionalization
approaches are being simultaneously pursued
toward the goals of ASCC.

A part of the arguments in this article were firstly appeared inJapanese in "Prospect and challenges of ASEAN Socio-Cultural
Community (ASCC)," KOKUSAIMONDAI, No. 646 (November2015), http://www2.jiia.or.jp/BOOK/
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and should
not be attributed to The Association of Japanese Institutes ofStrategic Studies.

AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

While APSC and AEC focus on their own broad but specific dimensions incontributing to the realization of an ASEAN Community, ASCC extensively
focuses on all other residual dimensions. Accordingly, ASCC deals with a wide
range of issues but its core focus is people, and its primary purposes are toimprove quality of life, forge a common regional identity among peoples, andcreate a people-centered ASEAN community. The norm of a "people-oriented"
ASEAN was initially promoted by civil society groups and was eventuallymentioned as one of the purposes of ASEAN in the ASEAN Charter. In thisrespect, the prospect of an ASEAN Community depends greatly on how well
ASCC can achieve its primary purposes above.
This article discusses, first, how the ASEAN norms have expanded during
the past decades and reviews developments in setting ASCC goals. The six
goals of ASCC in the 2009 ASCC Blueprint are human development; social
welfare and protection such as poverty alleviation; social justice, the promotion
and protection of the rights of women, children, the elderly and persons withdisabilities; environmental sustainability; the building of an ASEAN Identity, andthe narrowing of the development gap in the region. This article then examines
the features of the decision-making processes and clarifies three patterns ofpolicy implementation for ASCC programs.
The ASEAN Secretariat has actively taken the initiative in thedecision-making processes for ASCC-related programs by presenting draft
agendas to the chair governments of the ASCC Council for consultation, andthen presenting the agendas with revisions (if any) to the Senior Officials
Meeting for the ASCC (SOCA) for discussion. Most of the diverse agenda items
for ASCC Council Meetings can be categorized as matters traditionally fallingunder domestic policy, such as poverty reduction, education, protection of therights of women and children and social welfare but, at the same time, there are
new agenda items that definitely depend on policy coordination at the regional
level, such as enhancing a regional identity, strengthening disaster resilienceand narrowing the development gap (particularly in its social dimensions) among
the member states. In any case, individual member governments areresponsible for implementing ASCC-related programs in the domestic context.

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AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

With regard to the goals of ASCC, this article argues four points. First,
since the ASCC Blueprint was adopted, a number of programs in various sectors
have gotten underway. Their financial and human resources, broadly speaking,stem from three types of initiatives: initiatives based on UN organizations and/ormultilateral cooperation, initiatives based on external bilateral cooperation, andinitiatives from within ASEAN member states.
Though most of the ASCC programs depend on support from, andcooperation with, major donors either bilaterally or multilaterally, newdevelopments have taken place based on initiatives from within, particularly inthe higher education sector. For instance, ASEAN Study Centers have been
established in major universities in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore, and theASEAN Studies course started at the undergraduate level and the ASEAN Credit
Transfer System (ACTS) are now available at major universities in ASEAN
countries. It remains to be seen how these new developments can contribute toforging an ASEAN identity among the young generations of ASEAN countries,
and this may take time. New schemes of cooperation have also been
established in disaster management programs. For instance, the ASEAN
Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management(AHA Centre) established in 2011 is expected to contribute to building up
nations' disaster resilience.
Second, as far as ASCC-related programs are concerned, the ASEAN
Secretariat is taking the initiative in presenting program proposals, as mentioned
earlier. Many of these are implemented in cooperation with major donors andinternational organizations. Such a multilateral framework of cooperation showsthat approaches to ASCC depend on external support and cooperation inaddition to regional cooperation. In other words, internationalization andregionalization approaches are being simultaneously pursued toward the goal of
creating a regional community through ASCC.
Third, while there is a growing transnational network of experts, students,
and civil society groups striving for a "people-oriented" ASCC, it is left to thediscretion of each government to decide who can be counted as part of its"people." If a member state rejects including a certain ethnic group among its

http://www.jiia.or.jp/en/commentary3

AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

people, there is nothing that ASEAN can do to change the situation, as theRohingya case has revealed for years. Consequently, the massive humanitariancrisis of the Rohingya people cannot appear on the agenda for ASEAN
MinisterialMeetings.

Thisisoneof

thedifficult

limitationsofthe"people-oriented" approach of ASCC at present.
Finally, the target sectors of ASCC are deeply related to humandevelopment and human security, to which Japan has contributed through its
ODA either bilaterally or multilaterally for decades. Based on such experienceand its record of cooperation in ASCC-related programs, Japan is expected to
put its cooperation priorities on the six goals of ASCC to help improve the qualityof life of people and realizing a people-centered ASEAN Community.

Motoko Shuto is a Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences,
University of Tsukuba. Among her authored books are Gen Kikkawa, M. Shuto et al.
eds., Global Governance, Houritsu-Bunkasha, 2014. Carolina G. Hernandez andM.Shuto, "ASEAN-Japan Strategic Partnership in Southeast Asia: Socio-CulturalPillar" in Rizal Sukma and Yoshihide Soeya eds., Beyond 2015, Tokyo: Japan
Center for International Exchange, 2013, pp.58-73.

http://www.jiia.or.jp/en/commentary4