Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0000-9302-1334

Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

International Relations

Reader 1

Professor Jennifer Taw

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

© 2025 Aina Yukawa

Abstract

Sino-Japanese rivalry over regional influence in Asia has intensified in recent decades. China’s announcement of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 extended this competition into the realm of regional infrastructure development. As a longstanding and critical development assistance provider to the Asia-Pacific region, Japan now faced a new and formidable competitor. Initially, Japan adopted a cautious and resistant stance in response to the BRI. However, this approach appeared to shift in 2017, when the Abe administration began expressing interest in engaging with the BRI. In the context of improving bilateral relations and mutual interest in deepening economic ties, the Third-Country Business Cooperation (TCBC) emerged in October 2018, aligning the two countries’ private sectors to pursue joint infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia. Despite the widespread celebration of this new cooperation framework, the TCBC has largely dissipated in the past few years, producing few tangible project outcomes.

Given the limited results, this paper argues that Japan’s pursuit of the TCBC reflected strategic calculations rather than a genuine embrace of the BRI. While the agreement gave the impression of alignment with China’s initiative, the TCBC was a diplomatic tool for Japan to create strategic maneuvering space and maximize its own geostrategic interests. In the context of historically fraught Japan–China relations, the TCBC offered a neutral platform to deepen bilateral ties while delivering short-term political gains. By applying Levitsky and Way’s theoretical framework of “linkage” and “leverage,” this paper examines how Japan balances its foreign policy priorities through its alignment strategy.

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