Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe''s second term of office lasted from December 26, 2012 to September 16, 2020, a term of seven years and eight months, and it was the longest reign of any Japanese Prime Minister. His first term in office in 2006 was criticized by the press for his poor perception and inability to pursue his policies due to illness. Abe''s re-election prompted him to adopt a more pragmatic and forward-looking policy to confront the problems of the international landscape in the Indo-Pacific area, where Japan is located, and to outline Japan''s future national strategy. In addition to broadening Japan''s worldwide outlook, his foreign policy aims to restore Japan to a prominent position on the international stage.
In addition to analyzing the U.S.-Japan alliance as a continuation of Japan''s traditional diplomatic approach, this study further analyzes Abe''s geopolitical arrangements in the Asia-Pacific, European, and African regions after his re-election from the perspective of the global layout of the geodesic sphere, as well as his strategic vision of active pacifist value-based diplomacy and a free and open Indo-Pacific strategy, which are summarized in the following three points.
First, to obtain recognition from all countries of the common values of freedom, democracy, human rights, and rule of law; second, to establish bilateral cooperative partnerships through diplomatic and economic means; and third, to promote bilateral and multilateral agreements, economic cooperation frameworks, and joint military exercises at the military level in order to achieve Japan''s strategic objective of ensuring national security.
This study adopts geopolitical sea power theory, offensive realism, and analytic hierarchy theory as the theoretical framework to discuss the essential core of second-term Abe''s diplomatic propositions and the implications of Japan''s national security philosophy. This study adopts a document analysis and a comparative approach to study the foreign policy of Abe''s second term regime in depth, in the hopes that a comprehensive understanding of Japan''s national security and foreign policy path will be beneficial to the expansion of interstate collaboration between Taiwan and Japan.