June 9, 2017

"Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a forum on Asia's future in Tokyo on Monday that his government is ready to cooperate with China's Belt and Road (B&R) initiative under certain conditions, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Meanwhile, Abe hopes the initiative can be in harmony with a free and fair Trans-Pacific economic zone. Noticeably, it is the first time Abe has publicly shown an overture to the B&R initiative, following his first public declaration that Tokyo would consider joining the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in mid-May.

Although the real motives behind the shift from indifference to recognition in Japan's attitude toward the B&R initiative remain unclear, the gradual improvement of Sino-Japanese ties is a major driving force. When the B&R initiative was first proposed in 2013, the Abe administration considered it a Chinese attempt to establish a new world order and hence rejected it. However, as an increasing number of political and financial elites in Japan turn their focus on the B&R and AIIB, the administration has been forced to reconsider both China-proposed multilateral cooperative programs."

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