International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Advance Access published online on August 24, 2009
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, doi:10.1093/irap/lcp014
Not just global rhetoric: Japan's substantive actualization of its human security foreign policy
Law Faculty, National University of Singapore
Email: lawtht{at}nus.edu.sg
While there is much theoretical and academic discussion of human security, as well as regional expressions of human security by the Organization of American States, African Union, and the European Union, little of this is translated into substance except for Japan, which has incorporated human security into foreign policy. This paper examines Japan's definition and aspiration for human security, especially its plans to expand development aid through this modality in Southeast Asia. This scrutiny will encompass Japanese human security foreign policy and its substantive action through the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the UN Trust Fund for Human Security. Thus, the potential for Japanese human security cooperation with Southeast Asian partners will be reviewed in light of Japan's projected trajectory. The paper concludes by positing that bilateral engagement might be expected for the considerable future and suggests policy consolidation before regional engagement can be effected.
* Asian Society of International Law Research Fellow, National University of Singapore. This paper is a reworked version of my 2007/08 stint as an APIC Ushiba Memorial ASEAN Fellow in Tokyo and subsequently presented at the International Conference on Emerging Donors and New Approaches to Development Cooperation hosted by Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) and the Global Cooperation Center, Ewha Woman's University and Yonsei University, 4–5 December 2008, Seoul. I am indebted to Dr Akiko Fukushima, Senior Fellow of the Japan Foundation and Adjunct Professor at the Law School of Keio University, for encouraging me to look into Japan's operationalization of its human security policy.
Received for publication March 17, 2009. Accepted for publication July 27, 2009.