Newly appointed ambassadors from Japan to Australia are the envy of their colleagues: ¡°How nice to be appointed to a country where there are no real outstanding issues to resolve,¡± they often say. The same is true of their Australian counterparts in Japan.
This is likely to change. Much like Japan¡¯s ambassador to the United States and his U.S. counterpart, Japan and Australia¡¯s ambassadors will have to take on the momentous task of strengthening strategic cooperation on matters critical to national security.
Japan and Australia do not have the same kind of treaty-based alliance as Japan and the U.S. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the Japan-Australia relationship will develop into an alliance in substance if not in name. The context of this transformation is an ever-harsher international environment.
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