¡°Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,¡± Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recently told an international security gathering in Singapore, a catchphrase that speaks to the harsh lessons learnt over the past few months.
Better deterrence and response capabilities, he told a room packed with defense officials and diplomats, will be ¡°absolutely essential if Japan is to learn to survive in the new era and keep speaking out as a standard-bearer of peace.¡± Cranking up rhetoric, though, is the easy part.
Russia¡¯s invasion of Ukraine has jolted the pacifist nation into making bigger promises on spending, security and a foreign policy that relies on more than economics ¡ª welcome news for allies eager to have a muscular Japan discouraging provocations from its nuclear-armed neighbors. Tokyo now needs to overcome what remains of domestic resistance, free up funds and strengthen alliances, and fast. But this ¡°courteous power¡± can already use diplomatic tools to do more for the ¡°rules-based free and open international order¡± that Kishida talked up at the Shangri-La Dialogue earlier this month. He could do worse than to start in Southeast Asia. It¡¯s a region that, like much of the emerging world, has largely distanced itself from allies¡¯ response to President Vladimir Putin¡¯s aggression ¡ª and where Japan has more credibility than most.
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