Fukuda Doctrine

The Fukuda Doctrine was asserted by Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. In 1977, while on a tour of the ASEAN member states, the prime minister made a speech in Manila in which he articulated Japan's foreign policy that later became known as the Fukuda Doctrine.

Prime Minister Fukuda pledged that Japan, a country committed to peace, would never become a military power and that Japan would build up a relationship of mutual confidence and trust with Southeast Asian countries in wide-ranging fields, and that Japan would cooperate positively with ASEAN and its member countries in their own efforts, as an equal partner. The Fukuda Doctrine serves as the foundation of Japan's current and future diplomacy toward the rest of Asia.