Japan is accelerating its own version of the Belt and Road Initiative, focusing on energy networks and supply chains. This move presents a significant challenge to diminishing US economic and strategic influence in Asia.

What is in effect Japan’s version of the Belt and Road Initiative is being rolled out at an accelerating pace. But unlike China’s global infrastructure initiative, which mainly takes the form of highways, railways and sea lanes, Japan’s project is all about energy networks and supply chains. It poses a further challenge to America’s waning economic and strategic influence in Asia, the world’s most populous, resource-rich and potentially powerful region. What is more, it is a cooperative venture....