This week on GeoPod, Tenjin Consulting's Alexander Downer and Georgina Downer speak to former Australian Ambassador to Japan Bruce Miller AO about Japan and Asia. 

The legacy of recently retired Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is significant. Abe delivered Japan eight years of much needed political stability, drove a substantial economic reform agenda, and reinterpreted the Constitution to put Japan on a more normal defence footing. But he will be remembered most for the role he played on the international stage, positioning Japan as an activist middle power. Without Japan's leadership, for example, it is likely the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership and the Regional and Comprehensive Economic Partnership would have been dead on arrival. 

In response to a more assertive China, under Abe Japan navigated this historically tricky relationship adeptly without making any concessions.  There are clearly lessons here for Australia given the bilateral tensions with China. No doubt this was discussed at the recent meeting between Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison and the new Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo in November. 

Australia and Japan's relationship has deepened considerably over the last two decades. A series of defence agreements means that the two countries are now as close to an alliance as one can be, without actually being in one (ie, there are no mutual security assurances between the two). 

Japan usually prefers a Republican Administration in the White House given they tend to prioritise alliances over other relationships. But in this case, it is likely the Japanese Government will welcome the stability the incoming-Biden Administration is likely to deliver in US foreign policy.  Now, someone else has got their hands on Twitter diplomacy, and they aren't in the White House!