Sino-Japanese Energy Relations: Processes and Constraints

Abstract

Economic growth and a resultant rise in energy demand in China and other East Asian countries have attracted academic interests in energy security and energy cooperation. This article examines the nuanced development of institutions to realise Sino-Japanese energy cooperation at the bilateral and regional levels. It highlights the objective and process of cooperative engagements in terms of relative gain concern and the involvement of non-state actors. The arguments that this article advances are three-fold. First, the Japanese government has pushed forwards multilateral energy cooperation in East Asia and bilateral cooperation for energy conservation with China, which would produce both economic and political gains. Second, the Chinese government has adopted a cautious approach to Japan's energy engagements largely because it took into account the relative political gains of committing to such engagements in addition to the economic gains produced by them. Third, the involvement of non-state actors in cooperative projects and their meaningful roles in forging cross-border linkages could play a catalytic role in advancing cooperative processes.