JAPAN'S EFFORTS IN SOCIALIZING THE SAFETY OF NAVIGATION NORMS THROUGH THE REGIONAL COOPERATION AGREEMENT ON COMBATING PIRACY AND ARMED ROBBERY (RECAAP)

Abstract

Japan is a resource-poor country that heavily depends on international trade by the sea to fulfill its local demands. Southeast Asian SLOC (Sea Lines of Communication) connects Japan with its international trade partner including Middle East, African, and European countries. Unfortunately, Southeast Asian SLOC has the highest incidents of transnational crimes, including piracy and armed robbery. These transnational crimes will pose threats to maritime security and international trade activities in the region. Derived from this factor, Japan policymakers put more concern on maritime security issue by upholding the safety of navigation norms. Japan realizes that the existence of transnational crimes not only becomes a threat to Japan but also to all states. Thus, Japan tries to promote and socialize the safety of navigation norms internationally. This thesis aims to observe how Japan socialize the safety of navigation norms specifically through the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery (ReCAAP) as Japan’s anti-piracy initiative in Asia. Qualitative method will be used to identify the socialization process. To analyze further, this thesis will use the Norm Socialization theory. As the result, this thesis finds that Japan socialization efforts successfully attracted 13 countries to ratify ReCAAP, meanwhile, Indonesia and Malaysia refused to ratify it. This result shows that in the context of norm socialization, norms can be interpreted differently. Therefore, it resulted that states may internalize the socialized norms or refuse it.