Years after the rise of China pushed it out of the spotlight in the Asia-Pacific region, Japan is making a comeback. Japanese foreign investment in Southeast Asia has increased dramatically since 2013, particularly in emerging economies such as Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. Japan's increasing financial outlay has gone hand-in-hand with its efforts to become more proactive on regional security and diplomatic cooperation with individual states. Tokyo has become more involved in the South China Sea by stepping up defense cooperation with littoral states like Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, while it has also pursued closer bilateral defense ties with Australia and India. These overtures have ultimately given Japan a leading role in two regional mechanisms: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) — a regional free trade agreement that Japan pushed after the United States withdrew from talks in 2017 — and the U.S.