二○○三年十二月十二日日本與東協十國簽署「東京宣言」,雙方將致力於建立「東亞共同體」,並承諾在二○一二年之前成立自由貿易區,日本並答應在未來三年內提供三十億美元援助,這是繼東協加三之後日本與東協關係的另一項突破。過去日本一直是東協最大的經濟援助國,同時東協也是日本僅次於美國的第二大出口區,但是在美國因素阻撓下以及日本長期將東南亞視為市場腹地的情況下,使得日本對於與東協之間建立友好對等的合作關係一直不是很積極,但是這種情況在二○○○年之後卻出現相當大的轉變,在過去分析日本的這種轉變大多是從中國大陸經濟的崛起,以及日本與中國大陸在東亞地區的權力競逐等國際因素來著手,而忽視日本本身在國內層次上的轉變;因此,本文將嘗試從國內層次的角度來探討二○○○年之後日本對東協外交政策的轉變,其主要因素將包括政治及經濟兩項因素,在政治因素上最主要便是日本國內新保守主義的興起,在經濟因素上則是日本經濟的持續衰退,本文認為在這些政治與經濟因素的交錯下,讓日本對東協外交政策改弦易轍,進而對建立共同的合作關係產生極大的推力。
In the past, Japan has been the main ASEAN investor but the Japanese government has had a passive attitude vogarding the Free Trade Area between Japan and ASEAN. On Dec. 12, 2003, Japan and ASEAN signed the ”Tokyo Declaration,” which devoted both to building the ”East Asia Community” and ”Free Trade Area” before 2010. The government of Japan also promised to provide 3 billions dollars of assistant to the ASEAN countries over three years. The aim of this paper is to explore the structural factors and strategic choices involved in the Japanese decision. We will analyze the transition of Japanese government within the domestic dimension. The contributing factors are political and economic. The political dimension includes the rise of neo-conservation in Japan and the economic dimension includes the 1990s Japanese economic recession. These factors contributed to the Japanese government altering change the foreign policy regarding ASEAN in 2003.