The Indo-Pacific as Japan’s emotional space: emotions, the duality of space, and Watsuji tetsurō’s aidgara

Space as a concept remains subdued in the discussions of emotions in International Relations (IR). The geographical space within which Japan is located plays a crucial role in the emergence and elaboration of emotions in Japan’s foreign relations. How, then, can we incorporate space back into the considerations of emotions in Japan’s foreign relations? A Japanese philosopher, Watsuji Tetsurō, provides us with a valuable theoretical tool. Watsuji’s notion of aidagara – ‘inter-relationships’ – helps to bring the agents, the structures, the space, and the emotions together as factors co-producing one another. Using pronouncements on the Indo-Pacific by the second Abe administration, I identify how the Japanese government emotionally constructed various Others, ranging from anger and anxiety towards a threatening Chinese Other, to confidence and contentment at finding like-minded actors willing to subscribe to the language of the Indo-Pacific. I suggest that the Indo-Pacific is an emotional space for Japan.