While the world focuses on China’s rise, Japan has been quietly boosting its own strategic importance in Asia. Japan is now updating its defense policy to counter China, and increasing its military spending. But thanks to careful diplomacy, it has managed to gain trust with other small and middle powers. We speak to Robert Ward, Senior Fellow and Japan Chair at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and author of the book Evaluating Japan’s New Strategy. He explains how Japan is building its defense muscles without needing to flex them. Taiwan plays a big part, with Japan increasingly concerned about China’s ambitions over the island, which lies just kilometers away from its own claimed territory. He says the recent unreliability of the US is pushing Japan to step up, and drawing other nations to its side.
Content cited:
Robert Ward – Evaluating Japan’s New Grand Strategy: https://www.iiss.org/publications/adelphi/2025/evaluating-japans-new-grand-strategy
China created the rival it rails against – Andy Browne for SEMAFOR: https://www.semafor.com/article/06/02/2026/china-created-the-rival-it-rails-against
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan – The Updated “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP): https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/page25e_000278.html
Chapters:
00:00: Japan’s success in networking regional allies
01:32: Japan’s rising strategic importance
03:33: How Japan is responding to China’s territorial claims over Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands
05:16: China’s efforts to invoke memories of Japanese imperialism
06:25: Why the Philippines and Japan are moving closer together
08:30: Japan’s relations with South Korea
09:16: Vietnam’s importance for Japan’s ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’
10:40: Japan reacting to regional stability threats
11:45: How important is Japan for your country?
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