ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with Japan’s diplomacy in security dialogue process in the ARF from 1998 to 2005. The steady progress of its dialogue process during its first four years gave Japanese policy makers hope that the Forum might progress along the lines of their expectations and develop into an effective instrument for tackling Japan’s security concerns in the future. Thus, Japan continued to press the ARF to discuss contentious security issues in order not only to address its security concerns but also to enhance the credibility of the ARF as a valid forum for security dialogue and cooperation. However, the Japan’s experience of multilateral security diplomacy in the ARF from the late 1990s onwards was, overall, frustrating rather than satisfactory. Not only did Japan’s initiatives in tackling regional security issues through the ARF prove to be abortive in most cases but also its momentum was weakened by a number of new developments occurring in and after the late 1990s.
