The year 2013 marks the 40th anniversary of the launch of informal dialogue relations between ASEAN and Japan. The relationship between the two remains strong, but a number of developments in the region over the past decade have mad it necesarry to reexamine and redefine the strategic value of ASEAN-Japan cooperation. This report, based on the first year of a study that draws on the combined insights of dozens of the region’s brightest thinkers, offers recommendations for such cooperation with a particular eye toward how it can contribute to further integration amonf ASEAN countries, particulary in the economic, political and security, and socio-cultural realms.