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In contrast to descriptions of Japan as a country that shied away from involvement in international political affairs during the Cold War, this article shows that since the 1960s, Japan has actively engaged in diplomacy to resolve conflicts in Southeast Asia. What motivated these efforts? What role did Japan play? What are the characteristics of Japan's diplomacy? Drawing on declassified diplomatic documents, these questions are addressed by investigating Japan's peace brokering in four conflicts during the Cold War era. The findings deepen our understanding of Japan's contribution to conflict-resolution and its political role in Southeast Asia during the Cold War, which was much more active than claimed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why, in May 1970, did Japan participate – for the first time in the post-World War II era – in an international conference for the resolution of a conflict? Cold War-era Japan has often been described as shying away from involvement in international political affairs, especially in Asia, where memories of Japanese wartime aggression were still rankling. Yet, in 1970, when conflict erupted in Cambodia, Tokyo made its debut at a multilateral peacemaking endeavour: a conference bringing Asian and Pacific countries together in Jakarta to tackle the Cambodian problem. It is also puzzling that despite domestic opposition to the dispatch of a Japanese delegation to Jakarta, Prime Minister Eisaku Satō's government went ahead with Japanese attendance there. This article draws on declassified diplomatic documents in its investigation of the circumstances behind that unprecedented development in Japanese diplomacy. The findings reveal that amid the changes in Asia triggered by Washington's new policy of reduced engagement in the region, a more confident Japan was acting for peace in Cambodia, seeking not only to assume a larger regional role, but also to ensure the smooth realisation of two priority agendas of the Satō administration: the Okinawa reversion and the automatic extension of the Japan-U.S. security treaty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan's role during the Cambodian peace process after 1989 is often considered a successful case of post-Second World War Japanese diplomacy. In contrast to claims in the existing literature that Japan began to consider and initiated its involvement in the settlement only beginning in the late 1980s, this article demonstrates that Tokyo's role built upon a diplomatic platform that the Japanese had constructed through peace efforts since the Cambodian conflict erupted in 1979. The policy framework, objectives and initiatives of Japan's Cambodia diplomacy during the peace process represented the culmination of a ten-year diplomatic endeavour. Ultimately, Japan's involvement in the Cambodian settlement, guided by its Southeast Asia strategy of promoting coexistence and cooperation between ASEAN and Indochina, legitimated and favoured Japan's attempts to expand its post-Cold War role in regional political and security affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]