Lee Hsien Loong urges Japan to play larger role in SEA, Asia-Pacific (2025)

SINGAPORE – Japan can and should take on a larger security role in the region despite its history of aggression during World War II, said Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The importance of security cooperation with Japan has grown as the world enters uncharted waters: Regional geopolitical tensions and the US-China rivalry have intensified, while longstanding assumptions about defence alliances and nuclear non-proliferation are being questioned, he said.

“In such a world,Ibelieve Japan can play a useful stabilising role, and contribute to the well-being not justof South-east Asia, but the wider Asia-Pacific,” he saidat the launch of a book on Singapore and Japan ties at the National Library Building on April 2.

Singapore and Japan will celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2026, but the relationship had a tragic beginning when Japan invaded Singapore during World War II, he said.

He recounted how his father, Singapore’s first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, had narrowly escapedbeing rounded up and shot during the Sook Ching operation in 1942, whenthe Japanese military massacred thousands of Chinese in Singapore.

“Had he not evaded arrest, I would not be here today.This is history that we cannot and should not forget,” he told an audience which included Japanese diplomats and business leaders.

Every year on Feb 15, the day that Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, Singapore marks Total Defence Day with a ceremony at the Civilian War Memorial, where the remains of many of the civilian victims are interred.

SM Lee said that this was not just to mourn the victims and remind Singaporeans of the importance of defence, but also to look ahead and not to be trapped by the Republic’s history. As the late Mr Lee said when he unveiled the memorial in the 1960s: “We meet not to rekindle old fires of hatred, nor to seek settlementsfor blood debts.”

In the 1960s, Japanese manufacturers wanted to export to overseas markets and set up plants in lower-cost locations abroad.

After Singapore’s independence, the nation-state wanted foreign investments to create jobs and bring in technology. “In this spirit of pragmatism, both countries turned the page on history, and began a mutually beneficial economic partnership,” SM Lee said.

With Japanese companies like Sony, Panasonic, Sumitomo and Hitachi investing heavily in Singapore, Japan becameSingapore’s largest investor in the late 1970s.

Retailers such as Daimaru and Yaohan introduced local shoppers to Japanese-style department stores and supermarkets. Japanese brands like Toyota, Casio and Mitsubishi gained a reputation among Singaporeans for the quality and reliability of their products.

SM Lee said there were so many Japanese people in Singapore that the Japanese School here was for quite a long time the largest overseas Japanese school in the world.

Japan has contributed to South-east Asia’s development as a major source of investment and development assistance.

Asean and Japan cooperate in many areas, including trade, education, tourism and food security.

But security cooperation remained sensitive for many years.

This was why, said SM Lee, the Fukuda Doctrine, articulated in 1977 by then Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, explicitlyrejected Japan’s role as a military power.

More than a decade later, in 1991, when Japan sent minesweepers abroad to support coalition forces in the Gulf War, many Asians were uneasy. The situation was akin to “giving a chocolate liqueur to an alcoholic”, the late Mr Lee had said at the time.

However, with the passage of time and the passing of generations, SM Lee believes things have changed and that the present generations do not carry the same emotional scars.

He noted that Japan has also evolved. Its people now have very different social and political values than before; successive Japanese prime ministers have sought to build trust with the rest of Asia through words and deeds, such as then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s issuance of a landmark apology in 1995 for Japan’s wartime actions.

“Most importantly, we now live in a completelydifferent world,” he said.

There are now three nuclear powers in the Asia-Pacific – China, India and Pakistan, excluding North Korea. Intense rivalry between the US and China has become a key feature of the geopolitical scene, while tensions linger in the Taiwan Strait, East China Sea and South China Sea.

SM Lee said that this new reality has changedattitudes in South-east Asiaand caused countries to rethink their policies on security cooperation with Japan.

Japan has also stepped up inregional security cooperation in the past decade as it began to engage the Asean Defence Ministers’ Meeting in 2014.

“Singaporewelcomes Japan’s wider contributionsto regional peace and stability,” he said.

“Japanhas been a steadfast friend and partnerto the region for more than half a century.

“We sharesimilar outlookson many issues, including on the importance of upholding the multilateral trading system, and a rules-based international and regional order,” he said.

Speaking at the same event, Japanese Ambassador to Singapore Hiroshi Ishikawa said he found Singaporeans friendly and trusting of the Japanese, even though his country had lefta negative footprintin the history of Singapore.

“Mypersonal conviction on this issue is that we Japanese people should learnand face up to this history even though Singaporeans are very nice tous today,” he said.

Ambassador Ishikawa is the co-editor of The Land Of The Rising Sun And The Lion City: The Story Of Japan And Singapore, the book launched at the event.

The other editor is Singapore Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh, who was co-chair of the Japan-Singapore Symposium since its start in 1994 until 2024.

The 471-page book, published by Straits Times Press, is a collection of 68 essays covering a wide range of topics, including history, economic relations, security cooperation and people-to-people connections.

The authors of the essays are from both countries, andinclude scholars, diplomats, trade representatives and journalists such as ST Japan correspondent Walter Sim.

The book is available at$39.90 (inclusive of GST)at all major bookshops andstbooks.sg

• Yew Lun Tian is a senior foreign correspondent who covers China for The Straits Times.

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