Proceedings of The 6th International Academic Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2021
DOI:
Cause Analysis of Suga Administration’s Foreign Policy Orientation against the Backdrop of Sino-US Game
Shiyuan Zou
ABSTRACT:
When Yoshihide Suga took over as Prime Minister in September 2020, he was described by some international observers as a leader who might be great at internal affairs but poor at diplomacy, possibly due to his experience as the longest-serving Chief Cabinet Secretary, a position in which the policies of ministries and agencies in the executive branch are coordinated. In his one-year ruling time, at a diplomatic level, Mr Suga put emphasis on further deepening Japan’s close relations with the US as well as all-round cooperation with others who share common value. In the meanwhile Japan-China relations had been strained, which may be caused by Mr Suga’s occasional unfriendly actions towards China like unprecedentedly mentioned Taiwan issues in his bilateral statement with President Joe Biden since Japan established diplomatic relations with PRC in 1972. Comprehensively speaking, Suga’s foreign policy was conducive to the optimization of Japan’s national interest in the COVID-19 period with the continued economic downturn and infrequent personnel exchanges. Nonetheless, when the epidemic is brought under control, it will be necessary for future Japanese administrations to place a higher priority on improving relations with China out of consideration for considerable economic and trade interests with this neighbor.
keywords: Japan-US alliance, Japan-China relations, constitution revision, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, COVID-19.