An updated and revised translation of: Ajia no naka no Nihon : gekid åo no naka no tenbåo.

Errata sheet inserted.

Includes bibliographical references (p.399-425) and index.

Asia before the end of the Cold War -- Northeast Asia and the end of the Cold War -- Southeast Asia and the end of the Cold War -- "Asia-Pacific" experiments -- The rise of China and the crisis o n the Korean peninsula -- The "history" flare-up and strains in Japa n-China relations -- The Asian financial crisis -- East-Asian reg ionalism and Japan -- Enter Koizumi -- Six prime ministers in six years -- Abe's come-back.

"Official development assistance (ODA), direct investment in Southea st Asia, participation in the Cambodian peace process, peacekeeping ope rations (PKO), the founding of APEC and other large-scale regional fram eworks, the response to the Asian economic crisis, grappling with the " history" problem, trilateral summits: these have all been important mil estones for postwar Japan--and especially for post-Cold-War Japan--in i ts efforts to rediscover Asia and Japan's place in it. Tanaka Akihiko t races the role of diplomacy in redefining the role of Japan in Asia fro m the 1977 Fukuda Doctrine of "heart-to-heart contact" between Japan an d its Southeast Asian neighbors to the Abe administration's negotiation s to settle the comfort woman issue with South Korea at the end of 2015 . But he also looks at the transformation that Asia itself underwent du ring that period. The Cold War in Asia was not a simple bipolar confron tation between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies. The situation there was complicated by the presence of China, the impo rtance of nationalism for countries that had once been colonies, and th e need to escape third-world status and become economically developed. Asia during the Cold War, especially East Asia, was a divided region; f ew countries had normal international relations with China. But in the late 20th century, Asia underwent three structural changes--the end of the Cold War, globalization, and democratization. The result has been d ynamic growth in tandem with deepening economic interdependence and the development of a complex web of regional institutions among Asian coun tries. What has been Japan's role in this increasingly interconnected A sia? What has Japan achieved--or failed to achieve--in Asia? This book is a history of post-Cold-War international politics, the themes of whi ch are crises, responses to crises, and institution-building to prevent crises before they happen, aimed to provide an overview of political t rends in Asia and Japan's diplomatic response to them"-- Publisher's description.