Underdeveloped areas of APEC policy provide opportunities to enhance Japan’s leadership in the Asia Pacific.
Author: Toshiya Takahashi, Shoin University
The 2018 APEC summit in Port Moresby foreshadows an uncertain future for the forum. Due to disagreement between the United States and China, the meeting concluded without a joint communique — something unprecedented in APEC history. Without leadership, APEC risks becoming little more than a regional showcase for US–China rivalry.
Japan was and remains a key player in economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific. It was vital in rescuing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and forming its replacement, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Although Japanese leadership was absent in Port Moresby, the country has the potential to lead APEC in underdeveloped policy areas.
Japan was an active supporter of Australian prime minister Bob Hawke’s proposal for multilateral economic cooperation in the Asia Pacific in the 1980s. And since the establishment of APEC in 1989, Japan has played a leading role in its development. Japan has hosted APEC twice, and the 1995 Osaka Action Agenda became the roadmap for meeting the 1994 Bogor Goals — a set of targeted goals outlined by APEC member countries for realising free and open trade in the Asia Pacific. For Japan in the 1990s, APEC was the key mechanism for facilitating trade and investment liberalisation and economic development in the region.
While Japan’s commitment to economic cooperation has not changed, its approach to trade liberalisation has gradually shifted away from APEC. In the 2010s, domestic policy voices presented the TPP as a promising vehicle for Japan’s future economic prosperity. The Japanese government supported this perspective and pursued the TPP’s realisation despite strong domestic opposition, particularly from the agricultural sector.
