The Historical Background and Role of Japan’s Strengthening of Support for the Rule of Law

In recent years, Japanese leaders proposed “rule of law” diplomacy for promoting its Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) Initiative, as a counter proposal to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), though the two concepts are not necessarily mutually exclusive. How does Japan go about creating a favorable international order for its diplomatic and security environment? The clue lies in addressing the question of what we mean by “rule of law” and why the rule of law is often missing in less developed countries. Is Japan’s new agenda on promoting rule of law diplomacy really contributing to peacebuilding in Asia and the world? This article tries to address these questions using simple game theoretical framework, and suggests that “Higgins’ proposition” can provide some clues and it is conceivable that both China and Japan can gain by cooperating with each other, looking at longer-term gains for both countries.