Japan's Pan-Asian Policy in Muslim Eurasian Sphere (1931-1945)

The confrontation with Western civilization united Japanese Asianists and Muslim nationalists a century ago. The global recognition of Japan as a great power paved the way for its advancement in the Eurasian region in the name of Pan-Asianism ideology, the realization of a united Asia, and the liberation of Muslims from Western colonialism. Due to some limitations, Japanese government had to establish informal and secret relations with Muslim nationalist activists of the Russian and Chinese empires’ colonies. By relying solely on military power, the sphere of influence expansion in the vast geopolitical area of ​​Eurasia against these two great powers was impossible.To this end, Japan sought to establish a unified Asia by emphasizing identity, cultural, linguistic, and racial commonalities by adopting a Pan-Asian policy as the ideology of expansionist wars. In order to establish and expand the sphere of influence in the Eurasian region, the Empire of Japan tried to exert control there by virtue of soft power and cultural activities through highlighting common feelings, emotions and narratives and receiving recognition among the people, especially the Muslims of this region. Perceiving the distinct culture, race and language of the inhabitants of this region, Japanese tried to exclude the two main neighboring powers from interfering in this sphere of influence by identity demarcating. Regarding the hypothesis, the Constructivism theory which deals with spiritual and normative elements was applied to examine the correctness or incorrectness of such a hypothesis.