ABSTRACT
For the Japanese government, the G7 summit1 is a place of high-profile diplomacy where Japanese leaders seek to go beyond the constraints of the United States-Japanese bilateral relationship, in which Japan’s influence and agenda-setting ability are limited.2 The Japanese government has hoped for an active ‘use’ of the G7 economic forum in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis to reshape the international financial structure that, from the Japanese perspective, threatened the viability of relatively healthy economies in SouthEast and East Asia. The Japanese government needs a multilateral forum such as the G7 to circumvent U.S. opposition to Japan’s preferred approach. The predominant Japanese understanding is that Japan’s ability to resort to regional means at the height of the crisis in 1997-98 was limited by US. insistence on a solution led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
