Japan - Land of the rising strategic power and its partnership with India

Japan is finally rising as a power with strategic objectives. Shedding off its post-World War II inhibitions under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tokyo has adopted a new defence doctrine and could be soon exporting and manufacturing defence products with foreign partners.

In India, Japan may have found an appropriate strategic partner in Asia so as to work towards stability in the region. Abe mooted the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ with an eye on encouraging India to play a larger role in the Pacific region. Tokyo’s support will be imperative to push India’s membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec).

Tokyo is no longer shy of taking a stand on regional disputes as well on global terrorism, something that India should welcome. A key area of growing cooperation is maritime security between the two nations. In this context, Japan’s regular participation in Exercise Malabar — the annual trilateral naval exercise either off India’s coast or in the Pacific between the permanent partners of the US, Japan and India — is a significant development.

The two key elements of the new Indo-Japan strategic partnership are civil nuclear cooperation and that in defence. The civil nuclear partnership is particularly significant because India is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as well as because Tokyo had earlier taken a strong stand against India’s nuclear tests. Reversing its stand and extending support to India in 2008 for a clean waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is a milestone in Japan’s post-World War II foreign policy.

Japan still has a strong anti-nuclear constituency. So, the partnership with India is a result of trust and confidence in Delhi’s strategic programme and non-proliferation record. One waits to see whether the memorandum on the civil nuclear cooperation will get the necessary goahead from the Diet, thereby implementing action, including the grant of a site in India for a nuclear power plant built by a Japanese firm. Japan’s support will also be critical for India’s entry into the four export control regimes — the NSG, the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), the Australia Group and the Wassenaar Group.

The defence partnership has been in the making for the last few years and Abe gave it a definite push with the two landmark agreements inked — one, concerning the transfer of defence equipment and technology; the other involving security measures for the protection of classified military information.

Japan’s strategic objectives are now out in the open as it has firmed up a trilateral with India and the US (now upgraded to ministerial level). Another trilateral — India-Japan-Australia — is slowly gaining momentum after its maiden meeting in Delhi this year. A key goal of these initiatives is not to allow any power (read: China) to dominate the Indo-Pacific region. And for the first time an Indo-Japan joint statement called for freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. With these steps, Japan has come a long way from its old rigid position and is adjusting to the new world order.