ABSTRACT
This chapter is a survey of Japan’s relations with Asia from the early Meiji era (1868–1912) to the present day. It focuses on Pan-Asianism, an ideology, which emphasized Asian solidarity, unity and cooperation among the nations of East Asia against the threat of Western imperialism. In contrast to the Japanese government, which concentrated on establishing and maintaining friendly relations with the Western powers by diplomatic means, pan-Asianists emphasized the need for closer relations with Japan’s Asian neighbours. However, though Pan-Asianism was egalitarian in theory, in many cases it advanced claims to Japanese leadership in Asia. After 1945, scholars tended to avoid Pan-Asianism as a research subject because of its complex legacy, but the recent decades have seen much scholarly interest in the history of East Asian regionalism and Pan-Asianism, stimulated by the ongoing regional integration and its problems.
