Tokyo Report | Diplomacy | East Asia

From Hanoi to Manila: Japan’s Updated ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ Takes Shape

Tokyo’s Manila diplomacy linked ASEAN security cooperation to a wider Indo-Pacific network stretching to the Pacific Islands.

Japan’s Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu attended the ASEAN-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Manila, the Philippines, July 22, 2026.

Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu’s visit to Manila last week was more than another round of ASEAN diplomacy. It represented one of the clearest public manifestations of Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s updated Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy, demonstrating how Japan is shifting its engagement with Southeast Asia beyond traditional development assistance toward practical security cooperation.

Takaichi outlined that strategy in a foreign policy speech at Vietnam National University in Hanoi on May 2, marking a decade since the late former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo first proposed the FOIP vision. Takaichi argued that intensifying geopolitical competition, rapid technological innovation, and the rise of the Global South require Indo-Pacific countries to strengthen their “autonomy” and “resilience.” Her updated FOIP strategy identified three priorities: building economic infrastructure for the AI and data age, including resilient energy and critical mineral supply chains; promoting growth through public-private cooperation and shared rules; and expanding security cooperation to preserve regional peace and stability.

Equally important, Takaichi stressed that FOIP complements rather than competes with the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP). The message was intended to reassure Southeast Asian governments that Japan supports ASEAN-led regional institutions while helping member states strengthen their own strategic autonomy.

Motegi’s diplomacy in Manila put that vision into practice.

At the ASEAN-Japan Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on July 22, he described ASEAN as being “at the core” of Japan’s FOIP vision and pledged closer cooperation in maritime security, economic security, energy resilience, artificial intelligence, and disaster response.

Motegi also said Japan “strongly opposes any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion” in the East and South China Seas, language widely understood as directed at China even when Beijing is not named. He further called for any future South China Sea Code of Conduct between China and ASEAN to conform to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The clearest evidence of Japan’s changing approach is Official Security Assistance (OSA), introduced in 2023 to provide defense equipment and infrastructure directly to the armed forces and related organizations of partner countries. Unlike traditional development assistance, OSA is explicitly designed to strengthen recipients’ security and deterrence capabilities.

Recent projects include monitoring and surveillance equipment for the Philippines, a diving support vessel and equipment for ASEAN observer teams in Malaysia, high-speed patrol boats for Indonesia, maritime search-and-rescue equipment for Thailand, and communications equipment and patrol boats for Cambodia. Phnom Penh’s participation is particularly noteworthy, suggesting that even one of........

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