Since the 2000s, institutionalized cooperation among Indo-Pacific countries has advanced in both security and economic domains through multilateral, minilateral, and bilateral schemes. Japan has been proactive in establishing new schemes and formalizing partnerships with its like-minded countries. Why has Japan adopted such a strategy of institution-building, and how has its approach evolved? Instead of Japan’s “balancing” or “soft balancing” against rising China, we argue that such actions should be considered a form of hedging. Japan’s “proactive hedging strategy” employs various institutions to mitigate risks posed by strategic uncertainty and maximize its agency and autonomy at a time when the world order is in flux. Transient institutionalism emerges from such efforts taken by multiple players in the region, allowing them to buy time.
Oba et al. (Mon,) studied this question.