Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of the book. This book discusses Japan's role in the shaping of the post-Vietnam War order in Southeast Asia by examining its diplomacy on the Cambodian conflict, the main source of regional instability in those years. In the period after World War II, the Japanese considered Southeast Asia1 to be important in the process of rebuilding their economy and international role. The fact that Japan did not have diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China until the early 1970s and had a difficult relationship with the Korean Peninsula increased the importance of Southeast Asian countries for the Japanese. The Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1978 and the consequent outbreak of the Cambodian conflict brought Southeast Asia back into instability and deteriorated relations between Vietnam (and the newly established Vietnam-backed government in Cambodia) and ASEAN countries.