Facing China: Japan's growing strategic role in the Indo-Pacific | DW News

While the world focuses on China's rise, Japan has been quietly boosting its own strategic importance in Asia. Japan is now updating its defense policy to counter China, and increasing its military spending. But thanks to careful diplomacy, it has managed to gain trust with other small and middle powers. We speak to Robert Ward, Senior Fellow and Japan Chair at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and author of the book Evaluating Japan's New Strategy. He explains how Japan is building its defense muscles without needing to flex them. Taiwan plays a big part, with Japan increasingly concerned about China's ambitions over the island, which lies just kilometers away from its own claimed territory. He says the recent unreliability of the US is pushing Japan to step up, and drawing other nations to its side. Content cited: Robert Ward - Evaluating Japan’s New Grand Strategy: https://www.iiss.org/publications/adelphi/2025/evaluating-japans-new-grand-strategy China created the rival it rails against - Andy Browne for SEMAFOR: https://www.semafor.com/article/06/02/2026/china-created-the-rival-it-rails-against Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan - The Updated “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP): https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/page25e_000278.html Chapters: 00:00: Japan's success in networking regional allies 01:32: Japan's rising strategic importance 03:33: How Japan is responding to China's territorial claims over Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands 05:16: China's efforts to invoke memories of Japanese imperialism 06:25: Why the Philippines and Japan are moving closer together 08:30: Japan's relations with South Korea 09:16: Vietnam's importance for Japan's 'free and open Indo-Pacific' 10:40: Japan reacting to regional stability threats 11:45: How important is Japan for your country? For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/ Follow DW on social media: ►Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dwnews ►TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dwnews ►Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deutschewellenews/ ►Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwnews Für Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https://www.youtube.com/dwdeutsch Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/user/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1 #indopacific #japanchina #foip #dwcurrentaffairs