Why Japan counts now

Japan has transitioned in a decade from strategic passivity to the “most important net exporter of security” in the Indo-Pacific, says Michael Green. This has profound implications for how the rest of the region deals with aggressively rising China and how the US handles alliance relations. Tokyo recognised and responded to China’s strategic threat earlier and more effectively than Washington, says Green, and this underscores why the US should take its China policy cues from Japan and other regional allies.

 

Dr Michael J Green is CEO of the United States Study Centre at Sydney University. He is an authority on modern Japanese geostrategy and politics. He was a presidential national security advisor in the George W Bush administration. His most recent book is Line of Advantage: Japan’s Grand Strategy in the Era of Abe Shinzo (2022)