{"id":350878,"date":"2026-06-09T21:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/how-japan-is-quietly-becoming-the-indo-pacifics-most-trusted-power-dw-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T20:01:17","slug":"how-japan-is-quietly-becoming-the-indo-pacifics-most-trusted-power-dw-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/how-japan-is-quietly-becoming-the-indo-pacifics-most-trusted-power-dw-news\/","title":{"rendered":"How Japan is quietly becoming the Indo-Pacific&#8217;s most trusted power | DW News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.ytimg.com\/vi\/i7vTNeSVJOg\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"How Japan is quietly becoming the Indo-Pacific's most trusted power | DW News\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i7vTNeSVJOg\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>While the world focuses on China&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Content cited:<br \/>\nRobert Ward &#8211; Evaluating Japan\u2019s New Grand Strategy: https:\/\/www.iiss.org\/publications\/adelphi\/2025\/evaluating-japans-new-grand-strategy<br \/>\nChina created the rival it rails against &#8211; Andy Browne for SEMAFOR: https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/06\/02\/2026\/china-created-the-rival-it-rails-against<br \/>\nMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Japan &#8211; The Updated \u201cFree and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP): https:\/\/www.mofa.go.jp\/policy\/page25e_000278.html<\/p>\n<p>Chapters:<br \/>\n00:00: Japan&#8217;s success in networking regional allies<br \/>\n01:32: Japan&#8217;s rising strategic importance<br \/>\n03:33: How Japan is responding to China&#8217;s territorial claims over Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands<br \/>\n05:16: China&#8217;s efforts to invoke memories of Japanese imperialism<br \/>\n06:25: Why the Philippines and Japan are moving closer together<br \/>\n08:30: Japan&#8217;s relations with South Korea<br \/>\n09:16: Vietnam&#8217;s importance for Japan&#8217;s &#8216;free and open Indo-Pacific&#8217;<br \/>\n10:40: Japan reacting to regional stability threats<br \/>\n11:45: How important is Japan for your country?<\/p>\n<p>For more news go to: http:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/<\/p>\n<p>Follow DW on social media:<br \/>\n\u25baInstagram: https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dwnews<br \/>\n\u25baTikTok: https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@dwnews<br \/>\n\u25baFacebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/deutschewellenews\/<br \/>\n\u25baTwitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/dwnews<\/p>\n<p>F\u00fcr Videos in deutscher Sprache besuchen Sie: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/dwdeutsch<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/deutschewelleenglish?sub_confirmation=1<br \/>\n#indopacific #japanchina #foip #dwcurrentaffairs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the world focuses on China&#8217;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, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":350879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130889],"tags":[151085,129485,129610],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-350878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dw-news","tag-focuses","tag-while","tag-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How Japan is quietly becoming the Indo-Pacific&#039;s most trusted power | DW News | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch How Japan is quietly becoming the Indo-Pacific&#039;s most trusted power | DW News for free, here on News ISC. 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