Japan and the Transformation of the East Asian Political Economy

Abstract

Chapter 3 investigated a range of trends, issues and processes observed in post-crisis East Asia that cumulatively suggest a transformation of the region’s political economy. This chapter will concentrate on analysis of Japan’s links with and policies towards East Asia in the context of this transformation. By doing so the unit of analysis shifts from the regional to the national before, in subsequent chapters, shifting once more to the corporate level. A first section reviews Japan’s role in East Asian development and its promotion of the developmental state concept through ODA¹ and FDI in the period up to the AFC. Consideration is given to critical approaches to Japan in East Asia, notably the benign partnership versus embraced Asia debate. Subsequent sections consider the contemporary situation by utilising the framework established in Chapter 3. In other words, Japan’s economic and political relationships with East Asia are analysed in terms of its responses to stalled multilateralism, the AFC, deepening regional economic interdependence and the rise of China.