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

Nakasone Yasuhiro
Peace Institute

The Japan Institute ofInternational Affairs(Secretariat)

Editorial Advisory Board:

No. 283

Akio Watanabe (Chair)
Ichiro Fujisaki
Masashi Nishihara
Kenichiro Sasae

16 December 2020

Editorial Committee:
Tsutomu Kikuchi
Fumiaki Kubo
Tsuyoshi Sunohara
Shujiro Urata andTomiko Ichikawa
Editor & Online Publisher:
Kenichiro Sasae
President, JIIA

Research Institute for
Peace and Security

ABE’S DIPLOMATIC ACHIEVEMENTS
AND TASKS FOR SUGA
Matake Kamiya・ Shinzo Abe will be remembered as aconsequential prime minister who advanced avision of the international order that would be
comfortable both for Japan and the rest of theinternational community, and promoted theinternational cooperation necessary to achieve
such an order.
・ Abe took a liberal diplomatic posture precisely
because he is a nationalist. Hoping to make hiscountry great and knowing that it is impossible
for Japan to achieve that goal on its own, Abe
needed to value international cooperation inorder to promote interests significant to Japan,
particularly the maintenance of the liberalrules-based international order.
・ Japan’s new prime minister Yoshihide Sugashould carry forward his predecessor’s efforts
to transform Japan into a country that can leadinternational cooperation to protect the liberalrules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region andbeyond. From that perspective, Suga’s
diplomacy has made a good start.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and should
not be attributed to The Association of Japanese Institutes ofStrategic Studies.

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The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

The diplomacy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his second tenure of sevenyears and eight months from the end of 2012 increased Japan’s presence in the world
to an unprecedented level. He advanced a vision of the international order that would becomfortable for Japan and would bring a better future for the international community,and promoted the international cooperation necessary to achieve such an order. Abe’s
diplomacy will be remembered as such.
Abe clearly presented Japan as a protector of the liberal rules-based
international order led by the United States, in which all countries, large and small, payconsiderable respect to international rules underpinned by guiding principles or values
that include democracy and the rule of law and refrain from pursuing their claims
unilaterally by force. In recent years, this order has been seriously challenged andtested by attempts to change the status quo through force from two major authoritarianstates, China in Asia and Russia in Europe.
Abe stood up to these challenges through a series of diplomatic measures. His
major diplomatic achievements included the strengthening of the US-Japan alliance byrevising the Guidelines for US-Japan Defense Cooperation, taking a leading role inensuring the conclusion of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement forTrans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) after US withdrawal from the original TPP, andproposing the vision of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP).” All of thesedemonstrated Abe’s determination to put Japan in a leadership role in defending theliberal rules-based international order.
Particularly notable was Abe’s proposal of the FOIP, which inspired the UnitedStates to initiate its new regional strategy under the same name. It has also been
accepted by Australia and India, and has been welcomed by many countries inSoutheast Asia and Europe. It is unprecedented for a vision of a future international
order originating from Japan to exert such a major influence on the internationalcommunity. In the face of the Trump administration’s America First posture, many
international relations experts around the world even argued that the future of the liberalinternational order rested on the shoulders of Abe.
For a country to form an international order desirable for itself, collaboration
with other countries is indispensable. Abe promoted Japan’s cooperation with othercountries through his “diplomacy that takes a panoramic perspective of the world map,”
in which he made eighty-one foreign trips in less than eight years, visiting eighty
countries and regions in total. He made more than twenty visits to Indo-Pacific countries(including ASEAN countries, India, Australia and East African countries), andhttp://www.jiia.or.jp/en/commentary2

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The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

participated in the annual United Nations General Assembly every year during histenure. For Japan, close and solid relations with the United States are particularly
important as the basis of its international cooperation. Abe as a prime minister madeconsistent efforts to strengthen the alliance between the two countries and won trustfrom both the Obama and Trump administrations. He was arguably the only leader who
succeeded in “educating” President Donald Trump without making him angry.
In order for a country to lead the building of an international order, it isnecessary that the country itself assume substantial roles in international efforts to thatend. Abe throughout his tenure consistently tried to enhance Japan’s readiness to do sowith considerable success. A strong diplomacy needs to be supported by a strong
economy. Abe’s economic policy of Abenomics helped Japan pull itself out of the long
doldrums of the post-Junichiro Koizumi years, and the Japanese economy
consequently regained “vitality.” In the field of security, Abe, under his policy of“proactive contributions to peace” based on the principle of international cooperation,
successfully enhanced what Japan can actually do for international peace and security
to a considerable extent, while retaining the merits of Japan’s postwar pacifism. He didso by introducing a series of new security policies that included a constitutionalreinterpretation to allow the limited exercise of the right of collective self-defense andenacting new peace and security legislation.
Foreign observers may wonder why Abe, a well-known nationalist, consistently
maintained a liberal diplomatic posture emphasizing the importance of internationalcooperation. In fact, he emphasized the importance of international cooperation
precisely because he is a nationalist. Abe wanted to make his country great. He knew,
however, that it is impossible for Japan to achieve that goal on its own. Understandingthat Japan can become great when and only when it successfully cooperates with othercountries in a desirable manner, Abe consistently attached importance to cooperation
with other countries in order to promote Japan’s significant interests, particularly themaintenance of the liberal international order.
The author strongly hopes that Japan’s new prime minister Yoshihide Suga willsustain and further develop these positive orientations of Abe’s active diplomacy. Fromthat perspective, Suga’s diplomacy has made a good start. On September 20, four days
after he came into office, he selected Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and US
President Trump as the counterparts for his first two telephone summit talks andconfirmed with these leaders the importance of Japan-Australia and Japan-US
cooperation to achieve the FOIP. On October 6, the Suga administration hosted the

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The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

second Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Tokyo and the four ministers affirmed theimportance of the Quad countries broadening cooperation with other countries for therealization of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific.” The ministers also agreed on regularizing
this Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting going forward. Later in October, Suga selected
Vietnam and Indonesia, two major powers in the Association of South East AsianNations (ASEAN) whose initiative is considered key to realizing the FOIP, as thedestinations of his first foreign visit since taking office. In Hanoi, Suga delivered aspeech titled “Building Together the Future of Indo-Pacific” and emphasized thesignificance of cooperation between Japan and the ASEAN countries. More recently, as
soon as major US news media projected Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 US
presidential election, Suga congratulated him in a Twitter post and expressed his desire
to “further strengthen the Japan-US Alliance and ensure peace, freedom, and prosperityin the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.” Suga reiterated these points in his telephone
conversation with Biden on November 12. On November 17, Suga welcomed AustralianPrime Minister Scott Morrison in Tokyo. In their summit meeting, the two leadersaffirmed that Japan and Australia will together work toward realizing a "Free and Open
Indo-Pacific."
These actions by Suga clearly demonstrated to the international society thatthe new prime minister is determined to continue Japan’s diplomatic efforts to maintainthe liberal international order in Asia and beyond under his administration, based on hisrecognition of the significance of international cooperation for that purpose while valuing
the US-Japan alliance as the linchpin.
While Abe’s diplomacy was generally successful, it was not without problems.
In particular, his attitude toward the two largest revisionist states, China and Russia,
sometimes left the impression of inconsistency. While standing firm against thechallenges by these two countries to the liberal rules-based international order, Abe alsosought to improve Japan’s relations with these countries. Abe believed that Japan could
not afford exceedingly bad relations with China due to its geographical proximity. With
regard to Russia, he tried to cultivate close personal relations with President Vladimir
Putin in order to achieve the conclusion of a Japan-Russia peace treaty based on asolution to the Northern Territories issue acceptable to both sides. Consequently,
observers were sometimes perplexed by the peculiar “softness” involved in Abe’s
approach toward Beijing and Moscow.
Whether Japan will be able to maintain its current high presence in theinternational community will depend on whether Suga is able to carry forward his

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AJISS-Commentary
The Association of Japanese Institutes of Strategic Studies

predecessor’s efforts to transform Japan into a country that can lead international
cooperation to protect the liberal rules-based order while correcting its shortcomings.

Matake Kamiya is Professor of International Relations at the National Defense Academy ofJapan and Adjunct Fellow of the Japan Institute of International Affairs.

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