The surge of Japan’s enthusiasm for Asia-Pacific security multilateralism and the formation of the ASEAN Regional Forum (1992–93)

As we have seen, the Nakayama proposal failed to muster widespread support from regional countries. It could even not attract considerable attentions from the Japanese media. In spite of this, Japan’s initial enthusiasm for regional security multilateralism did not dwindle; rather it grew considerably during the early 1990s. Indeed, MOFA continued to pursue its objective of promoting a forum for multilateral security dialogues in the Asia-Pacific region although it refrained from taking the initiative and instead took the lead from behind.