ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Central Asia’s natural resources and economic attractiveness as a driver for the Japanese government’s policy and for the activities of Japanese companies. I analyse both the evolution of Japan’s resource diplomacy and the external environment, including cyclical factors relevant to Central Asian commodities. It unveils a divergence of strategic approaches among individual Japanese corporates choosing between forward-looking and risk aversion, anticipation and adaptation, and, in certain cases, a shift between those strategies. The first part focuses on the oil and gas sector, revealing the predominance of anticipatory behaviour, while the second part deals with the uranium and rare earths mining sector, revealing the predominance of adaptation over anticipation.
