Japan-Vietnam Relations During The Second Abe Administration

During the second Abe administration,many new changes have taken place in international relations in East Asia.The great game between China and the United States at the strategic level makes the regional situation tense for a while.After a short period of improvement in Sino-Japanese relations,the ‘Diaoyu Islands Dispute' in 2012 made it plunge into a freezing period.Sino-Vietnam relations have experienced considerable twists and turns due to the South China Sea issue,especially the happening of ‘HAI YANG SHI YOU 981 Incident' in 2014.The development of the relations between Japan and Vietnam has attracted considerable attention in this uncertain regional situation.In November 2012,Abe took office for the second time.In order to achieve his political ideal,Abe took ‘proactive pacifism' as the basic idea,formulated Japan's national security strategy and implemented security system reform.It is under the guidance of this strategy that Abe actively implements a new diplomatic strategy,upgrading Japan-Vietnam relations to ‘a broad strategic partnership committed to peace and prosperity in Asia'.This paper focuses on combing the latest progress of Japan and Vietnam in the political and military relationship level,economic and trade relationship level and human exchange relationship level during the second Abe administration.Meanwhile,from the perspective of Japan,this paper explains the development of Japan-Vietnam relations.In Japan's diplomatic strategy,Vietnam is Japan's ‘tool' for ‘hedging' China.Japan's policy toward Vietnam is ‘courting Vietnam to contain China'.Studying Japan-Vietnam relations is not only essential for understanding Japan's national development strategy,but also related to the future of China-Japan relation.