East Asian Cooperation Under The Background Of Japan's East Asia Policy Research

With a multi-polar world being established after the Cold War, inter-staterelations become closer and regional cooperation has also risen. The establishment ofEU and NAFTA has set good examples to all the states struggling for regionalcooperation. Under such circumstances and by the stimulus of East Asian financialcrisis happened in1997, regional cooperation in East Asia has also developed, andcooperative mechanism with the main channel of “10+3” has been formed.As one of the most significant states in East Asia, Japan has always had its ownambition in regional cooperation——to be the leader of East Asia. However, for theunpredictably changes after the1997financial crisis and pressure from the UnitedStates, Japan had to restructure its East Asia policy, and then pushed forward “EastAsian Community” plan at the beginning of the21century.In2002, the then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed the East AsianCooperation plan the first time on behalf of the Japanese government. His plan setsChina as the imaginary enemy, and premeditates to counterbalance effects of Chinaand ASEAN in this region through the Japan-US Alliance. And the ultimate goal is toachieve dominance in East Asian Integration Progress. But because of Koizumi’sover-dependence on Japan-US alliance and ignorance of neighboring counties, thisplan failed at last.In2009, with the spirit of “fraternity” and “one member of Asia”, cabinet ofYukio Hatoyama again advocated “East Asian Community” as its political signal inlaunching regional cooperation and diplomacy. Such policy pushed long-stagnatingEast Asian cooperation to a fresh peak. But with the limitation of status quo, theidealistic Hatoyama plan also failed to be carried out smoothly.In recent years, Japan’s domestic politics suffers continuing turmoil. Further, bythe shock of global financial crisis happened in2008and the great earthquake in2011,Japan’s attitude towards East Asian cooperation seems to return to the LDP (LiberalDemocratic Party) era. Whether Japan chooses to be “over-dependent on the US” orto “return Asia” or to “re-embrace the United States” proposed by the current PrimeMinister Yoshihiko Noda is hard to say, but it’s obvious that Japan’s East Asia policy keeps swinging between two terms:“one member of Asia” and “the Japan-USAlliance”. While up to now, it’s still unclear that in which direction will Japandevelop; or how can the building of East Asian Community find the most suitableway.By summarizing Japan’s policies on East Asian cooperation these years, thisessay will try to study proper methods in East Asian Community building.