Chinese and Japanese foreign policies towards central Asia from a comparative perspective

Abstract

This paper compares and analyses China’s and Japan’s foreign policies with regard to the newly emerging Central Asian (CA) states based on the role that each country attributes to that region, including political cooperation, economic interaction, security, public perception and mutual relevance. It demonstrates that in some respects, the interests of China and Japan in CA are similar, as exemplified by their focus on mineral resources and political stability. However, these countries differ in their approaches and strategies there: China is inclined to follow pragmatic approaches, whereas Japan’s policy is a mixture of idealistic and pragmatic perspectives.

Keywords:

• China's foreign policy
• Japan's foreign policy
• Central Asia

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Timur Dadabaev

Dr. Timur Dadabaev is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tsukuba, and concurrently Adjunct Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, University of Tokyo.