ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses continuity and change in Japan’s economic diplomacy in recent years. Economic diplomacy gained sway as a concept in Japanese government circles in the 2010s, not least the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Using the newly emerging ‘economic diplomacy trinity’ as a conceptual framework, the authors analyze developments in the three economic diplomacy strands of commercial diplomacy (the promotion of international trade, investment and tourism); trade diplomacy (bilateral, regional and multilateral negotiations on trade and investment agreements); and development cooperation. The three case studies collectively suggest that Japan’s traditional emphasis on commercial goals of economic diplomacy is broadened to include also a more outspoken, visible element of geo-strategic power play and limited securitization. These policy adjustments constitute a pragmatic reorientation to the rapidly changing global environ – spurred, in particular, by China’s growing activism in the field – rather than a move away from economic diplomacy as the key foreign policy instrument. That being said, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, economic diplomacy is increasingly perceived in zero-sum terms. A better understanding of how Japanese policies in this field have (not) evolved over the past decades is important in a world where differences between ‘the West and the rest’ will only rise.
