ABSTRACT
In the previous four chapters, this book has examined Japan’s actual diplomacy in the ARF over twelve years. We now turn to examine the question of how have Japan’s experiences in the ARF influenced its initial conception of and policy towards regional security multilateralism. In order to answer this question, this chapter first evaluates in more detail the ARF’s achievements and limitations with respect to Japan’s expectations, objectives and goals for ARF policy, as discussed in Chapter 2. This chapter argues that though the ARF has served a number of Japan’s policy objectives, in general terms, it remains no more than a venue for multilateral security dialogues or, to put it more cynically, ‘a talking shop’ for Japanese policy makers because of its highly limited capacities for promoting meaningful cooperative security measures and for addressing Japan’s major security concerns. As a result of certain disappointing experiences, Japanese conceptions of the ARF have shifted from an optimistic ‘liberal’ to a more pessimistic ‘realist’ perspective, which has in turn resulted in Japan’s ARF policy becoming considerably more tentative and less energetic. This chapter also considers other factors accounting for Japan’s waning enthusiasm for regional security multilateralism. It examines the internal and external constraints that have been placed on Japan’s ARF policy, including US misgivings about Japan’s tilt toward security multilateralism, Japan’s domestic organisational limitations, growing dissensions within MOFA over the value of the ARF, the lack of political support for bureaucratic initiatives for regional security multilateralism, and the unexpected frictions between bilateral and multilateral security approaches in Japan’s overall security policy.
