本文以現實學派的觀點,論述日本在亞洲金融風暴後東南亞區域政策的發展。由於日本在二次大戰之後,外交政策一直是追隨美國的腳步,主要採取支持發展全球性多邊機制以及雙邊關係的立場。然而冷戰之後,隨著中國的崛起與美國勢力的淡出,加上1997年金融風暴的發生,整個東亞的國際政治情勢發生劇烈變化,日本也開始逐漸積極涉入東南亞區域的各項多邊機制。 日本在1997金融風暴後,緊追中國的區域政策,開始與東協及東協各國簽訂各種雙邊協定,這些從全球性的佈局回歸重視區域的政策轉變,絕非國際政治理論中的自由學派與建構學派所能充分解釋。因此,本文希望從現實學派的理論基礎,透過美國、中國與日本冷戰後實際東南亞區域政策上的各自發展,來說明日本東亞區域政策的轉變,事實上具有濃厚現實政治之考量基礎。
This article discusses Japan's Southeast Asian regional policy after the Asian Financial Crisis from a realist perspective. Since World War II, Japan's foreign policy has closely followed the steps of U.S., which supports development of global multilateral institutions and bilateral relations. In the aftermath of the Cold War, following the emergence of China and U.S.'s declining power and in addition to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, there had been massive changes of the international political situation in Southeast Asia. Hence, Japan has become increasingly engaged in many of the multilateral institutions in the Southeast Asia region. After the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, Japan looked to China's regional policy, and signed all kinds of bilateral agreements with ASEAN and its members. Both liberalism and constructivism IR theories cannot adequately explain Japan's dramatic shift from global to regional strategic policy. Hence, the purpose of this article is to explain that the transformation of Japan's Southeast Asian policy is in fact based on the fundamentals of a realism political approach through the analysis of the developments of Southeast Asian regional policy in the U.S., China and Japan since the Cold War.