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After the recently held Tokyo Conference on Afghanistan, it is expected that Japan will take its own initiatives to make follow-up measures under the two mechanisms formulated at the Tokyo Conference -- the Tokyo Declaration and the Tokyo Framework.

Japan is beginning to get nervous about the direction of US policies and is beginning to question the stability of the US-Japan Security Treaty, according to a scholar based in Australia.

One concrete outcome of the bilateral talks between the visiting Japanese Prime Minister and the US President was that the US was able to get Japan closer to making a commitment to the Trans Pacific Cooperation Agreement which the US has been advocating since 2011.

The challenges that Japan and India face are largely complementary and thus hold promise for enhancing ties. A robust India-Japan partnership will support and promote India's increasingly assertive and strong role as well as Japan's leading position in the east Asian region.

To enjoy its demographic dividend, India must stop looking down upon low-skilled workers and treat them with dignity. Examples and experiences from other countries are there to learn from - Japan is one.

The four-point agreement that was worked out by State Councillor Yang Jichei and Japanese National Security Adviser Shotaro Yachi to enable the meeting between President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan indicates that Tokyo has walked the extra mile to assuage the Chinese.

Japan's engagement with SE Asia focuses through expanding economic ties, cooperation on maritime issues and building close diplomatic relations through Abe's travel diplomacy. This is Japan's 'pivot' to SE Asia and it is here to stay given its strategic rivalry with China.

One is still not sure whether Prime Minister Abe will be inclined to let the defence budget cross the self-imposed limit of 1 per cent of the GNP. Only once in the 1980s Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone crossed the Rubicon. But considering the 'extraordinarily grave' security situation in East Asia, Abe may feel impelled to do so.

At the recent seventh Japan-Mekong Summit in Tokyo in the first week of July, both Japan and the Mekong countries reiterated their resolve to implement an ambitious cooperation programme called New Tokyo Strategy 2015 for Mekong-Japan Cooperation for the three years covering 2016-18.

One can see two major reasons for PM Shinzo Abe's decision to change the policy on arms exports. First, Abe is keen to remove many of the self-imposed taboos that have stood in the way of Japan becoming a 'normal country'. At a time when the security environment in East Asia has become so tense, Japan cannot afford to neglect the modernisation of its defence industry.

Despite the change of guards in Japan, the new government has reaffirmed its commitment to maintain "global and strategic partnership" with India

Japan has announced its new military policy changes, amidst escalating tensions, particularly in Northeast Asia. In a major military policy shift, its new National Defense Programme Guidelines has called for shifting of forces from the northern islands of Hokkaido towards the southern islands,

One compelling reason for Japan to adopt the new energy policy was the Abe government's recognition that in the absence of nuclear energy, which accounted for 30% of the total electricity until recently, the country had to pay heavily for importing oil and gas from abroad.

The passing of the security legislation recently has fulfilled at least partly PM Abe's long-drawn quest towards making Japan a normal country. He has always believed that Article 9 of the US authored Japanese constitution, which put severe restrictions on Japan's right to collective self-defence, should be amended.

The nuclear debate in Japan has given scope for fresh anxieties within the region and beyond about the country's nuclear programme, particularly its recycling programme of extracted plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.

The rise, if you want to call it that, of another Asian power on the flanks of China, one which also has difficulties with Beijing, is to India's advantage. New Delhi is not unaware of the geopolitical benefits.

Japan is facing extremely dangerous situation in North East Asia where North Korea is developing nuclear weapons. It is also witnessing China's excessive assertiveness in the East China Sea and the South China Sea. So, situations like these will influence the way Japan will shape its security policy, says eminent Japanese scholar Prof. Shinichi Kitaoka.

The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) faces its first crucial test, after it captured power in August last year, when the House of Councillors election takes place on 11 July. The outcome of the election will have a great impact on the effectiveness of new Prime Minister Mr.Naoto Kan.

The recent decision by the government of Naoto Kan to denuclearise Japan by 2050, regardless of its naivete, has certain traits that could help in overhauling the political economy of Japan's energy sector.

Japanese ODA has eased the burden of borrowing in the Indian market. Moreover, with the Japanese economy still struggling to induce growth, investments in India offer an avenue to earn interest income. Increased Japanese FDI is also likely to give a huge boost to the Indian economy.

A delegation of Japanese intellectuals under the leadership of Mr. Yamamoto Tadashi, President, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE), a leading independent and non-profit Think Tank in Japan, visited ORF on 23 November, 2007

From the beginning of the 21st century, India's foreign policy got a strategic orientation. Until then, it lacked coherence due to the absence of an overall plan or document stating the foreign policy objectives, says Professor Takenori Horimoto of The Open University of Japan.

The expanding engagement with the Japanese navy, one of the strongest in the world, should give a boost to India's maritime diplomacy in Asia. If New Delhi's interests in the Pacific are growing, Tokyo's naval profile in the Indian Ocean has begun to expand.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's recent visit to India marks one more significant thrust to further strengthening Japan-India relations in areas like economic aid, trade and investment and clarifying their position in areas where a full meeting of minds has still not been achieved.

Increasingly, many countries that have traditionally maintained a defensive and pacifist posture, like Japan, are having to reconsider their options.

A detailed study of Japan's role in the peace settlement of the Cambodian issue is important as it was one of the earliest political efforts made by Tokyo in a region which had been known for its antipathy to Japan due to the strong historical memories of the Second World War. Southeast Asia posed one of the most serious challenges to Japan's post-war diplomacy which had to wrestle not only with the bitter legacies of the war, but also with the r

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, just after the withdrawal of US-led troops, will have ramifications in Japan’s activities in the region. Since 2001, Japan has provided 759 billion yen (USD6.9 billion) to reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. This, despite the fact that Japan does not share geographical proximity with Afghanistan and therefore has no direct strategic interests in the country. To be sure, Japan’s partners s

If someone in Sri Lanka thought that the jail-term handed down to Jayalalithaa, until then the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, would ease avoidable political tensions across the Palk Strait, they should be sadly mistaken.

The four characteristics of the "strong Chief Minister" today - authoritarianism, constitutional subregionalism, a "business-friendly" approach, and political welfarism - were first combined into a coherent whole by Jayalalithaa