After decades of solely relying on the United States for its national security needs, over the last decade, Japan has begun to actively develop and deepen its security ties with a growing number of countries and actors in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, a development that has further intensified under the Shinzo Abe administration. This is the first book that provides a comprehensive analysis of the motives and objectives from both the Japanese and the partner-countries' perspectives, and asks what this might mean for the security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, and what lessons can be learned for security cooperation more broadly.

This book is for those interested in Japan's security policy beyond the US-Japan security alliance, and non-US centred bilateral and multilateral security cooperation. It is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate level courses on regional security cooperation and strategic partnerships, and Japanese foreign and security policy.

Introduction - Wilhelm Vosse and Paul Midford

Part I: Japan-Australia security partnership
1 The Australian perspective on the security partnership with Japan - Thomas S. Wilkins
2 The Japanese perspective on the security partnership with Australia - Yusuke Ishihara

Part II: Japan-India security partnership
3 The Indian perspective on the security partnership with Japan - Madhuchanda Ghosh
4 The Japanese perspective on the security partnership with India - Satoru Nagao

Part III: Japan-South East Asia security partnership
5 Japan's multilateral security cooperation with East Asia - Paul Midford
6 The East Asia perspective on the security partnership with Japan - Stephen R. Nagy
7 The Philippine perspective on the security partnership with Japan - Renato Cruz De Castro
8 The Vietnamese perspective on the security partnership with Japan - Swee Lean Collin Koh
9 The Japanese perspective on the security partnership with Vietnam - Bjørn Elias Mikalsen Grønning

Part IV: Japan-Europe security partnership
10 The Japanese perspective on the security partnership with the European Union - Akiko Fukushima
11 The European perspective of the security partnership with Japan - Axel Berkofsky
12 EU-Japan security partnership in practice: the counter-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia - Wilhelm Vosse
Conclusion - Wilhelm Vosse and Paul Midford

Appendix: List of important multi- and bilateral security-related agreements
Index

Editors

Wilhelm M. Vosse is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the International Christian University, Tokyo

Paul Midford is Professor in the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim