Abstract
One way to forecast the prospects of China’s Belt and Road Initiatives (BRIs) is to analyse the commitment of other major economic powers to this plan. From this perspective, this chapter reviews Japan’s response to the BRI during the past seven years. The first section discusses Japan’s perceptions on the BRI in a bilateral context between Tokyo and Beijing. The next section studies Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s global diplomacy in response to the BRI. Despite his refusal to accept China’s proposal at the initial stage, by 2017, Abe decided to compete with China under the new flag of ‘quality infrastructure building’ based on his economic rationality. Owing to the China-U.S. trade war, Abe achieved outstanding success in persuading China to accept Japan’s conditions on the BRI. This has increased the potential for the BRI architecture to grow into a network of countries with several small and big cores distributed in the system rather than into a hub-and-spokes system.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
