Hedging No More : Security Seeking and Japan’s Dual-Track China Policy

Hedging can no longer explain Japan’s China policy due to the end of Tokyo’s uncertainty about the threat posed by a rising China. Indeed, Japan has initiated unprecedented changes to its post-1945 security posture to balance China. However, its continuous economic cooperation with China has led many to suggest that Tokyo’s China policy is still defined by hedging. To clarify the confusion, this article proposes a new perspective to explain the co-presence of balancing and economic cooperation. It posits that Japan is pursuing a new ‘dual-track’ approach that seeks to both deter China by hard balancing and enhance its national power through economic cooperation. It is different from both the balance of power approach and the hedging approach that seeks to correct it.