Shifting Patterns in Japan's Economic Co-operation in East Asia

The general aim of this chapter is to review emerging structural factors in Japan's domestic and international contexts that are driving change in Japan's interactions with East Asia. Under the pressures of domestic restructuring in the areas of economies, polities and demographics, Japan's central government confronts a prospect of scarcer funding for traditional forms of economic co-operation such as official development assistance (ODA). At the same time, the globalization of the world's economy and communications is giving greater prominence to transnational processes in which a variety of societal and subnational actors – local governments among them – have a growing role in building co-operative processes and structures. ¹ To give this kind of discussion a concrete focus, the case of Japan's approach to Japan Sea co-operation will be introduced.