The Japanese government is considering upgrading its free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, its top spokesperson said Monday, amid an increasingly severe security environment and greater competition on emerging technologies.
The strategy first put forward in 2016 by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, incumbent Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s mentor, is intended to promote the rule of law, free trade and stability in the region.
It has gone on to become a central principle in Japan’s diplomacy with like-minded countries in the region.
“We must respond to changes in the times and evolve it into the most appropriate form,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a regular press conference. Japan faces an increasingly severe security environment from a more assertive China as well as North Korean missile and nuclear threats.
“On economic security and international competition over emerging technologies, issues that did not exist at the time have emerged,” Kihara said of changes that have occurred since the strategy’s introduction.
Kihara refrained from providing concrete details amid ongoing review of the policy primarily at the Foreign Ministry, while telling reporters the strategy’s basic principles of freedom and the rule of law are “unchanged” regardless of changes in the times.
