Japan: Deciphering Prime Minister Ishiba’s Strategic Vision. Toward an Asian version of NATO?
On Tuesday, October 1, Shigeru Ishiba was sworn in as Prime Minister of Japan. His proposal to revise the security alliance with the United States and create an Asian version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) attracted attention and sparked lively debate.
On October 1, Shigeru Ishiba was sworn in as Prime Minister of Japan. An expert in strategic and defense issues, his proposal to revise the security alliance with the United States and create an Asian version of NATO has sparked heated debate.
Continuing the defense reforms initiated by Shinzo Abe and Fumio Kishida, Ishiba also aims to strengthen Japan’s strategic autonomy by revising Article 9 of the Constitution, rebalancing roles within the Japan-US alliance, diversifying its strategic partners and adopting confidence-building measures with China.
For the time being, the idea of an Asian NATO seems unrealistic; the regional security architecture in the Indo-Pacific appears to be moving less toward a collective defense pact than a system of integrated deterrence, structured around alliances and security pacts. Japan and the Japan-US alliance play a central role in this.
Available in:
Themes and regions
ISBN / ISSN
Share
This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.
Japan: Deciphering Prime Minister Ishiba’s Strategic Vision. Toward an Asian version of NATO?
Céline PAJON
Research Fellow, Head of Japan and Indo-Pacific Research, Center for Asian Studies, Ifri
Center for Asian Studies
Asia is a nerve center for multiple global economic, political and security challenges. The Center for Asian Studies provides documented expertise and a platform for discussion on Asian issues to accompany decision makers and explain and contextualize developments in the region for the sake of a larger public dialogue.
The Center's research is organized along two major axes: relations between Asia's major powers and the rest of the world; and internal economic and social dynamics of Asian countries. The Center's research focuses primarily on China, Japan, India, Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific, but also covers Southeast Asia, the Korean peninsula and the Pacific Islands.
The Centre for Asian Studies maintains close institutional links with counterpart research institutes in Europe and Asia, and its researchers regularly carry out fieldwork in the region.
The Center organizes closed-door roundtables, expert-level seminars and a number of public events, including an Annual Conference, that welcome experts from Asia, Europe and the United States. The work of Center’s researchers, as well as that of their partners, is regularly published in the Center’s electronic journal Asie.Visions.
Space Security and Missile Defense : Japan's Quest for Autonomy and Indispensability
Seeking greater autonomy without loosening its alliance with the United States, Japan has steadily turned space into a pillar of its defense, building sovereign capabilities that also make it an indispensable partner, to Washington and beyond. This approach raises questions for Europe, whose ties with Japan are multiplying but which has yet to define what it can concretely bring to Tokyo, particularly in missile warning.
China’s Climate Leadership after Hormuz: How Should Europe Adjust?
The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz in early 2026 offered an unplanned stress test of China’s approach to energy security, and China passed it far better than most expected. The episode demonstrated that the underlying risk of supply disruption is real, while validating a preference for resilience and resource security that has long underpinned Chinese energy and climate policy and has now been reinforced under the banner of building an “energy powerhouse.”
China as an ambivalent supporter of the WTO and the multilateral trading system
Amid rising trade tensions between Europe and China and broader uncertainty in the international rules-based trade regime, Beijing has worked to preserve and bolster the multilateral trading system while at the same time failing to reform the domestic policies that have served to undermine that same system.
Canada in the Indo-Pacific: Sustaining the Pivot, Partnering with France
Since the launch of Canada’s inaugural Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) in November 2022, Ottawa has moved—with notable but uneven momentum—from the margins of regional engagement to a position of growing strategic visibility. The Strategy, backed by an initial $2.3 billion five-year investment, reflects a long-overdue recognition: Canada is a Pacific nation whose prosperity and security are inextricably linked to the stability of the world’s most economically and strategically consequential region.