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Japan’s elevated interest in Central Asia reflects a combination of economic motives, such as access to resources and investment opportunities, as well as geopolitical goals aimed at promoting regional stability and enabling a counterbalance to other major powers.

The Central Asian region, consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, with its abundant natural resources and strategically important location, has become a geopolitically and economically significant area for investment and interest from global and regional powers, including Japan.

The recent Central Asia Plus Japan Dialogue (CA+JAD) Summit confirmed Japan’s increased attention toward the region, which may play an important role in the country’s domestic and foreign policy agendas. The CA+JAD translated the official strategies and interests of the participating states into an ambitious and sustainable roadmap for versatile cooperation.

Domestically, Japan suffers from a lack of natural resources crucial for maintaining both its traditional and modern industries, relying almost entirely on imports. In this context, the country values stable access to natural resources, and Central Asian oil, gas, and critical minerals have the potential to alleviate its resource and energy security concerns. Japan also seeks economic diversification and investment outside East Asian markets. The Central Asian region represents another valuable market for Japanese firms’ economic expansion, especially in infrastructure and technology, providing Japan with greater economic resilience.

In terms of foreign policy, Japan has consistently sought to maintain a secure and stable regional environment by fostering strong security ties with the United States, managing China’s growing influence, and responding to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war through the imposition of sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine. Taking these geopolitical circumstances into account, investment in Central Asia represents a valuable diplomatic outreach, particularly in terms of countering significant Russian and Chinese presence in the region.

Japan’s increased attention toward the region also fits into Central Asia’s multi-vector strategic approach. The Central Asian countries have become more proactive and determined to use their geoeconomic and geopolitical leverage by courting and balancing global and regional powers to maximise economic benefits and strengthen their strategic positioning. Central Asia plus Japan dialogue

CA+JAD was the first summit that gathered the leaders of the five Central Asian countries and Japan. During the summit, the heads of the participating states agreed on several important areas of cooperation and the identification of key regional and global issues. These were officially outlined in the CA+JAD Tokyo Initiative Declaration, which opened space for meaningful and strengthened multidimensional collaboration. The declaration identified three priority cooperation areas: Green and Resilience, Connectivity and Human Resource Development. It also announced Japan’s five-year goal of business projects totaling $19 billion in Central Asia.

In the green energy and resilience area, Japan hopes to increase cooperation in the region’s energy sector while paying special attention to the decarbonisation process. The country has expressed strong support for energy transitions toward net-zero and carbon neutrality in Central Asia through various initiatives. Japan has been particularly interested in strengthening critical mineral supply chains through enhanced mineral exploration in the region.

Cooperation in the green and energy resilience field has been a strong focus of Japan’s diplomatic outreach, especially given the country’s heavy reliance on natural resources imports. In a heightened geopolitical environment, maintaining a stable supply of natural resources has become increasingly difficult. As a result, new potential suppliers such as Central Asian countries are a welcome addition to Japan’s diversification strategy, which aims to reduce reliance on single suppliers—for example, China for rare earth minerals.

For Japan, a well-connected Central Asia represents a necessary step for the region to increase its presence in the international market and use its abundant resources and energy sources. The declaration emphasises enhanced logistics, transportation, and people-to-people exchanges within and beyond the region as forms of strengthened connectivity. Japan supports the regional Trans-Caspian International Transport Route as an alternative transportation logistics network that allows Central Asia to reach the European market and, importantly, bypass Russia.

The summit was also a place for the participating states to express strong support for cooperation in the field of digital connectivity and for working on the creation of “safe, secure, and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI)” that has vast potential to encourage sustainable economic growth and address social challenges.

In the area of human development, leaders from Japan and Central Asian countries agreed to strengthen human resources, with a particular focus on scholarships, training, and exchange programs, as well as cooperation in areas such as public service, business, healthcare systems and women’s empowerment. These initiatives may have the potential to strengthen Japan’s soft power outreach in the region, potentially increasing the country’s influence and presence across Central Asian countries.

In addition to economic cooperation, the summit was also a platform for mutual support on regional and global geopolitical issues. Japan recognised and supported Central Asia’s immediate security challenges, which include stabilising Afghanistan and diminishing possible spillover threats of terrorism and instability. Central Asian leaders welcomed Japan’s efforts to continue its dialogue with Kabul even after the return of the Taliban to power, especially given the reduced Western interest in Afghanistan.

In a reciprocal manner, the Central Asian states supported Japan’s efforts toward the denuclearisation of North Korea, which remains the country’s priority in the security-related realm. Japan has been especially concerned about nuclear-armed North Korea and Russia’s deepening ties with Pyongyang, which may affect the country’s non-proliferation efforts and stall international dialogue on peace and security. Domestic economic motives and a proactive foreign policy approach

Japan’s domestic economic interests in engaging with Central Asian countries arise from the need to concurrently secure the country’s access to natural resources and diversify its supplies away from the Middle East for oil and gas and from China for critical rare minerals. The country also seeks to open new markets for technology and infrastructure export opportunities for Japanese companies.

As a country with negligible amounts of domestic energy sources, Japan has been looking for ways to secure its energy supplies and protect itself against external energy crises with possible diversification strategies. Currently, Japan imports 90% of its total energy supply, relying heavily on imported oil, coal, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to fuel its economy.

Central Asia’s abundant oil and gas resources may have the potential to help Japan alleviate vulnerabilities from geopolitical challenges that can easily disrupt the country’s energy supply channels, especially given the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war and unstable situation in the Middle East. However, geographical remoteness and logistical barriers make energy imports from Central Asia to Japan difficult to materialise, at least on a large scale.

Central Asia’s substantial and still underexplored deposits of rare earths and critical minerals have attracted increased attention from Japan. Considering significant potential of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route to transport materials while bypassing Russia, these important metals and minerals can reach Japan and support the country’s defence, clean energy and high-tech manufacturing sectors.

Although plans to transport the valuable resources from Central Asia to Japan are still in the early stages and require the establishment of robust infrastructure and logistics networks, Japan’s willingness to invest in mining sectors across the region may yield positive outcomes in the future. Moreover, importing Central Asian critical minerals has the potential to dilute China’s dominance in this field and help Japan diversify its suppliers.

Accessing new markets, such as Central Asia, with technological and infrastructure exports is also an important aspect of Japan’s economic growth strategy. Japan has moved beyond a simple donor role to become a more proactive economic, technological and institutional partner in the region. For instance, there are more than 50 Japanese companies and joint ventures currently operating in Uzbekistan, mainly in the fields of renewables, energy efficiency and technological transfer.

The recent summit paved the way for Japanese companies to continue deepening previous collaboration and advance new investment projects, especially in the fields of digitalisation, infrastructure and developing natural resources. Japanese firms have been involved in building gas-to-gasoline plants in Turkmenistan, purchasing rare metals such as gallium from Kazakhstan, as well as collaborating on IOWN, a next-generation optical and communication network, and investing in solar power projects in Uzbekistan. Japan’s position in the Central Asian multi-vector strategy

Central Asian countries possess significant leverage due to their vast territory and abundant natural resources. Nevertheless, the region’s combined GDP remains limited relative to its resource potential, while poverty persists in several states. Through collective diplomatic outreach, the five nations of Central Asia can increase their influence in relations with powerful states. As a region with a proactive diplomatic approach that seeks to develop stronger ties with regional and global powers through a hedging strategy, Central Asia manages to gain economic benefits while retaining autonomy and securing itself against external threats and neglect.

Although Japan is not a major power, its support for climate resilience, enhanced trade, digital and green transition, as well as security across Central Asia, represents a welcoming addition to the region’s multi-vector hedging strategy. Closer relations with Japan enable the Central Asian states to simultaneously maintain a balanced policy and achieve good economic results without jeopardizing their traditionally strong ties with Russia and China.

Unlike influential global powers, such as Russia, China, the U.S. and Europe, which often consider Central Asia as a place for competing and contesting over influence and power, a belief that continues to sustain the elements of the “Great Game” paradigm, Japan reflects a more attuned approach to the region’s long-term development. Moving away from the power politics deeply ingrained in the foreign policy actions of global powers, Japan, although not completely detached from its strategic considerations, prefers to support practical development in the region.