Fouse, David, and Yoichiro Sato

Abstract
Overview
• Japan’s support for counterterrorism in Southeast Asia (SEA) partly reflects its
commitment to the U.S.-Japan alliance, but is also part of a wider strategy for
enhancing its political and security role in the region.
• Japan’s focus has been to develop a comprehensive set of initiatives aimed at
enhancing SEA countries’ basic governance capabilities in areas such as law
enforcement, export control, money laundering, anti-piracy, air and sea port
security, immigration control and proliferation of WMD.
• Due to domestic political constraints, Japan’s contributions in the area of
counterterrorism emphasize non-military means of cooperation. Japan’s
constitutional ban against collective defense continues to be cited as an obstacle
to Self Defense Force participation in counterterrorism (CT), but this has not
hindered cooperation in civilian law enforcement, including Coast Guard
cooperation. Recently, the Maritime Self Defense Force (MSDF) has begun to
cautiously expand its CT efforts.
• Bureaucratic turf battles inside SEA countries receiving Japanese aid can be a
problem for CT cooperation with Japan, especially when the domestic law
enforcement role is partly shared by the military.
• Japan’s aid is greatly appreciated by Southeast Asia’s least CT-capable states,
such as the Philippines and Indonesia. Nevertheless, SEA remains a laggard in
terms of ratifying the twelve UN counter-terrorism conventions and protocols.
• Because of the limitations on Japan’s military, its programs aimed at cooperating
with Southeast Asian countries in various subfields of CT are perceived by some
Southeast Asian countries to be less threatening than programs initiated by the
United States. Japan’s CT programs are, however, still in their initial stages and
continue to evolve.
• Assistance to Southeast Asia is quantitatively insufficient, and redundancies
among aid givers are not yet a problem. As quantity of aid increases, however,
donor consultations and coordination between Japan and the United States will
become necessary.
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