This volume examines the growing strategic and normative rivalry between China and Japan over the future security order of East Asia/Indo-Pacific. It analyzes how China advances concepts such as the Community of Shared Future for Mankind and the Global Security Initiative through connectivity, economic interdependence, and alternative governance norms. It then explores Japan’s evolution from postwar pacifism and the Yoshida Doctrine toward the Free and Open Indo-Pacific vision, alliance-based balancing, and normative leadership. The book argues that competing threat perceptions, governance preferences, and regional visions have produced a durable impasse limiting bilateral rapprochement and inclusive regional security architecture development.

Oktay Kucukdegirmenci is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of International and Regional Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, China. His research focuses on Chinese, Japanese, andTurkish foreign policies, China–Japan relations, and Asia-Pacific security.