Closer ASEAN-Japan Relations amid Great Power Transition in the 21st Century?

While Japan and the ASEAN states can celebrate the Golden Jubilees of the ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation and the Fukuda Doctrine, there is no room for complacency. Both sides must assiduously cultivate a closer and comprehensive relationship in the decades ahead for mutual support and benefits. A cordial and cooperative relationship will boost the capability of Japan and the ASEAN states to have greater agency to act autonomously in a new epoch threatening to suck them into the vortex of a New Cold War bipolarity between the competing US and Chinese superpowers.