Japan’s Soft Diplomacy towards Indonesia in Natural Disaster Assistance

Abstract

This research aims to analyze Japan's soft diplomacy towards Indonesia in earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction natural disasters in Central Sulawesi. The type of this research is qualitative literature study method. The theoretical perspectives used are: 1) Soft diplomacy as an effort made by several foreign countries, especially Japan towards Indonesia in the form of providing assistance after the earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction natural disasters that occurred in Central Sulawesi on the basis of empathy for global problems, especially humanity with utilizing various instruments such as emergency assistance, rehabilitation, reconstruction and disaster management in various other forms of instruments to strengthen diplomatic relations between Japan and Indonesia; 2) Diplomacy of natural disasters can be seen as a form of prevention, mitigation, and minimizing losses before a disaster occurs and both the form of response, repair, and reconstruction after the disaster that is built in international cooperation. The results of this study indicate that the earthquake, tsunami and liquefaction natural disasters that occurred in Central Sulawesi on September 28, 2018 caused many foreign countries, especially Japan, to participate in providing assistance to the Indonesian Government as part of empathy on the basis of humanity through the provision of emergency assistance, rehabilitation, reconstruction and disaster management so that these efforts can strengthen diplomatic relations and achieve profits in the Indonesia-Japan 2045 cooperation project.