In Search of Structural Power

Abstract This chapter focuses on the social aspect of Indo-Pacific grand strategy in which Japan works to maintain and heighten its global status, reputation, and influence through international public good contribution. Although foreign aid and support for economic development continues to be an important pillar of Japan’s contribution, the use and the purpose of this contribution has expanded in the 21st century. The chapter covers three aspects. First, after contentious domestic debates over its military contribution to the Gulf War in 1990/91, the Japanese government established the 1992 International Cooperation Law, which enabled its Self-Defense Force to operate outside of Japan under the auspices of UN peacekeeping operations. Foreign policy instruments such as peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistant/disaster relief began to constitute a greater part of Japan’s contribution to global public goods. Second, Tokyo began to promote elements of the human security agenda as key values of its development agenda. Moreover, UN Sustainable Development Goals have endorsed Japan’s long-term developmentalist priorities, such as infrastructure investment. Third and finally, since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, Tokyo has played an active role in the area of global environmental governance, thus balancing different priorities between the developing and developed worlds.