It was a sensational idea that Shigeru Ishiba put forward last week, shortly before he was elected leader of the ruling LDP party and took office as Japan’s new prime minister on Tuesday: Ishiba called for a collective Asian defense alliance, a kind of Asian NATO. „Ukraine today is Asia tomorrow. Replacing Russia with China and Ukraine with Taiwan, the absence of a collective self-defense system like NATO in Asia means that wars are likely to break out because there is no obligation for mutual defense. Under these circumstances, the creation of an Asian version of NATO is essential to deter China by its Western allies,“ wrote the Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in an article for the Hudson Institute.