Open Regionalism and Regional Governance: A Revival of Open Regionalism and Japan’s Perspectives on East Asia Summit

Abstract

This paper explores Japan’s perspectives on the East Asia Summit, and its attempts to revive open regionalism as a conjunction of globalism and regionalism. Japan’s approach to regionalism has been centred on what we call ‘open regionalism’. As this paper presumes, an open regionalism is symbolised and represented in Japan’s unique approach to regional governance that attempts to bridge the tension between globalism and regionalism. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to conceptualise the complex interplay between open regionalism and regional governance as initiated by Japan. By investigating Japan’s political discourses on domestic and foreign policies, this paper attempts to describe Japan’s open regionalism towards the Summit and towards the East Asian Community as a revival of open regionalism, and to investigate its impact on regional governance. The chief hypothesis is that Japan’s perspectives on the East Asia Summit can be seen as a resurgence of open regionalism discourses, and that discourses have been Japan’s typical approach to regional governance. For the purposes of examination, this paper assesses, with reference to Peter Katzenstein’s porous regionalism and T. J. Pempel’s geopsychology, a framework of Japan’s open regionalism in relation to its regional governance and contemporary Asian regionalism. The paper is organised into five parts: the first part theoretically and systematically reviews Japan’s approach to open regionalism and regional governance; the second part briefly overviews the East Asia Summit; the third and fourth parts examine the domestic political context, centred on Japan’s EPA policies, and then Japan’s foreign policy discourses toward the East Asia Summit; finally, the fifth part then evaluates a resurgence of open regionalism and Japan’s perspective on the East Asia Summit and its theoretical implications for regional governance.