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Japan’s Values-based Diplomacy & The Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Translation & Interpreting (BA) Department of Contemporary History, Faculty of Arts University of the Basque Country Academic Year 2019-2020 Author: Jon Elizagaray Iglesias Dissertation advisor: Víctor Manuel Amado Castro ~ 1 ~ Table of contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4 Research problem and objectives .............................................................................................. 4 Documentary analysis ............................................................................................................... 4 Research limitations .................................................................................................................. 5 Overview of the structure .......................................................................................................... 5 Japan’s Post-World War II Diplomacy ......................................................................................... 6 The San Francisco System ........................................................................................................ 6 The Yoshida Doctrine ............................................................................................................... 7 The introduction of a UN-centered diplomacy ......................................................................... 7 The Fukuda Doctrine ................................................................................................................ 8 Post-Cold War Values-based Diplomacy .................................................................................... 10 “Checkbook Diplomacy” ........................................................................................................ 11 Taiwanese Democratization .................................................................................................... 12 The Alliance for the 21st Century ............................................................................................ 12 1992 ODA Charter Reform ..................................................................................................... 13 Partnership for Democratic Assistance ................................................................................... 14 Eurasian Diplomacy ................................................................................................................ 14 Shinzō Abe’s Diplomacy ............................................................................................................ 15 Arc of Freedom and Prosperity ............................................................................................... 15 Japan-Mekong Partnership Program ................................................................................... 16 The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue ...................................................................................... 17 The Free and Open Indo-Pacific ................................................................................................. 18 The Indo-Pacific region .......................................................................................................... 18 East China Sea .................................................................................................................... 19 South China Sea .................................................................................................................. 20 The Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision .................................................................................. 20 Shinzō Abe’s return to the executive .................................................................................. 21 The Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy ............................................................................... 24 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 29 Secondary sources ....................................................................................................................... 31 ~ 2 ~ Abstract This dissertation briefly explores the Japanese values-based diplomacy from the post-Second World War II period to the present with an emphasis on Shinzo Abe’s diplomatic initiatives focused on “universal values”. The research is primarily carried out on a chronological fashion that first analyzes the earliest examples of a values-based diplomacy up to the most recent ones. Based on both primary and secondary sources, I observe how, up to the 1990s, Japanese diplomacy rather followed a low profile diplomacy in which the promotion of democratic values was manifest in the relations with the Western Bloc, but rather avoided with Asian partners. However I argue that, with the end of the Cold War, Japan started to incorporate democracy promotion objectives more actively in his diplomatic initiatives for Eurasia as a means to rekindle his diplomatic exercise. Among the most notable examples we can find the publishing of the Official Development Assistance Charter in 1992, the Partnership for Democratic Development and the Silk Road Action Plan. The factors that might have pushed Japan to do so—i.e. the will to change the international perception of a mercantilist Japanese diplomacy, the interest to highlight its own democratic character in the region and the synergies generated by it with the United States—can also be considered in the later articulation of the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity and the Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiatives. Both of them, however, should be interpreted as direct expressions of Shinzō Abe’s self-proclaimed “assertive” and “strategic diplomacy” based on a set of “universal values”. After an analysis of Shinzō Abe’s policies, I conclude stating that the allusions to the concepts of the “rule of law”, “freedom”, “freedom of navigation” and “democracy” characterize the diplomacy of a government cabinet devoted to the protection of the so-called “rules based international order” in the face of an increasingly strategic Indo-Pacific region. ~ 3 ~ Introduction Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Japan has engaged itself in an assertive promotion of the liberal precepts of the rule of law, freedom and openness in Asia. This particular campaign can be traced back to 2006, when Shinzō Abe assumed the role of Prime Minister for the first time and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spearheaded by Tarō Asō, advocated for the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity based on “universal values” (fuhenteki kachi). The Liberal Democratic Party’s comeback in late 2012 confirmed its leaders’ will to engage in a “proactive contribution to peace” and the resolution to play a leading role in the maintenance of “Open and Stable Seas” for the Indo-Pacific region. Recently, in 2016, the two aforementioned concepts of “freedom” and “openness” have most remarkably been fused together in the “Free and Open Indo- Pacific” diplomatic leitmotif proposed by the third Abe Cabinet. Research problem and objectives The objective of this dissertation is to examine the most notable instances of the post-World War II values-based Japanese diplomacy as a precedent for the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision. Even if the “Arc of Freedom and Prosperity” and the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” appear to be the most notable examples of a values-based diplomacy, this paper tries to answer whether it can be asserted that the promotion of “universal values” such as the rule of law, democracy or freedom was an unprecedented choice or not. Through the analysis of Tokyo’s diplomatic exercise and the elucidation of its sources, I will try to signal at which point Japan started adding such an idealist coating to its policies in Asia and, in order to do so, I will refer to Japan’s international doctrines in the light of his international position after World War II. Moreover, I will briefly touch upon the motives that might have pushed Japan to promote a set of “fundamental” or “universal” values in his vicinity. With this in mind, this dissertation will try to shed some light into the multifaceted Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative as the archetype of a values-based diplomacy. Documentary analysis The analyzed material is mainly composed of bilateral diplomatic statements. This set of data is available to public access thanks to the governmental policy records available online. I treat these as primary sources because of their nature as official documents published by the governments involved. In fact, the body of primary sources for this dissertation is largely drawn from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. Most ~ 4 ~ of them have been translated into English but some others are only available in Japanese, language that I am proficient on. The primary sources will be cited in the footnotes. As for the secondary sources, I extensively rely on the works of International Relations scholars such as Yoshihide Soeya1 and Victor D. Cha2 for their account on the history of Japanese diplomacy. For an account on the history of democracy diplomacy in Japan, I have consulted, among others, the works of Maiko Ichihara3 and Daniel M.

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