Vietnam and Philippines trust Japan. Why doesn’t Indonesia?

For Southeast Asia, trust in Japan runs deepest where China presses hardest and breaks down where neutrality is a point of pride. Analysts say that dynamic, revealed in an annual survey released earlier this month, explains why Vietnam and the Philippines both see the East Asian nation as a trusted partner while Indonesia, a country that has long prized non-alignment, is uncomfortable with Tokyo’s deepening embrace of Washington. Trust in Tokyo is highest in the Philippines (77.3 per cent),...

By Maria Siow