ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to elucidate Japan's role in the governance of the East Asian political economy. Its main focus is on the Japanese role in subregional institutions, particularly the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Three as an emerging site of governance, as well as on the policies the government has adopted in the wake of the 1997–8 East Asian financial and wider crises. As it stands, a number of articles have appeared on the Japanese policy response to the crises (e.g. Hughes 2000; Hook et al. 2002), but work on Japan's role in East Asian governance is particularly sparse (Kikuchi 2003), with attention tending to be directed at the impact of the crises on national governance within the affected economies (e.g. Jomo 1998; Kim 2000; Haque 2002).
