ABSTRACT
Pan-Asianism between nationalism and regionalism In studies of international relations in East Asia, the phenomenon of regionalism – i.e. regional cooperation and integration based on a shared perception of the region’s present, past, and future – is receiving growing attention. Regional approaches in East Asia are still heavily burdened by the legacies of the past, as shown by the recent discussions about the Yasukuni Shrine issue and the territorial disputes between Japan and her neighbors. Another important and controversial aspect of these legacies is Pan-Asianism, an ideology that served not only as a basis for early efforts at regional integration in East Asia, but also as a cloak for expansionism and as a tool for legitimizing Japanese hegemony and colonial rule. The history of Pan-Asianism is therefore highly ambiguous, as previous research2 has demonstrated, and it is this ambiguity that still continues to pose a major obstacle for regional integration in contemporary East Asia.3 This volume aims at exploring the ideology and the movement of Pan-Asianism as a precursor of contemporary Asian regionalism, thereby bringing historical perspective to bear on recent approaches to regional cooperation and integration.
