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Japan's Foreign Relations: A Global Search For Economic Security
by Robert S. Ozaki Walter ArnoldAfter World War II, Japan reemerged in the arena of international relations as an almost exclusively economic power without military might or territorial ambitions. Within some thirty years it transformed itself from a semideveloped state to a technological superpower with an economy that today is the second largest in the free world, next only to the United States, accounting for over 10 percent of total global production. The management of a rapidly growing industrial state with little domestic supply of resources necessarily requires great skill in the difficult task of maintaining sufficient access to overseas markets to sustain internal economic activity. Not surprisingly, then, Japan's foreign relations from World War II to the present have been heavily conditioned by economic considerations. This collection of original articles investigates how the economic growth of Japan has affected the pattern of its foreign relations and where and to what extent economic principles have had to be compromised for political, legal, cultural, or ideological reasons. The contributors, experts on Japan's economy, politics, and foreign relations, analyze the state of Japan's foreign relations with North America, the EC, Oceania, the Soviet Union, COMECON, China, ASEAN, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Korea, and Taiwan, focusing on developments in the last seven years and predicting likely trends in the 1980s.
Japan's Foreign Relations in Asia
by James D.J. Brown Jeff KingstonJapan's Foreign Relations in Asia has been specifically designed to introduce students to Japan’s foreign relations in Asia since 1990, a period in which there have been dramatic developments in Japan, including the reinterpretation of the Constitution and expanded US–Japan defence cooperation. The geopolitical dynamics and implications of these new developments are profound and underscore the need for a new textbook on this subject. Covering not only the key regional players of China and the Koreas, this textbook also encompasses chapters on Japan’s relations with India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, along with its multilateral engagement and initiatives. Combined with transnational chapters on critical issues, key themes covered by this book include: An historical overview of key post-war developments. Japan’s evolving security policy. Analysis of the region’s escalating maritime disputes. An evaluation of Japanese soft power in Asia. Written by leading experts in accessible, jargon-free style, this new textbook will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Japanese politics, international relations and foreign policy and Asian affairs in general.
Japan's Future and a New Meiji Transformation: International Reflections (Asia's Transformations)
by Ken Coates Kimie Hara Carin Holroyd Marie SöderbergBringing together the work of sixteen international Japan specialists and scholars, this book analyzes Japan’s culture and history to reflect on the critical policy decisions and national commitments required for the country to continue to succeed. Comparing the current situation with the uncertainties of the late nineteenth century, this book investigates the possibility and desirability of a "New Meiji Transformation" in Japan. Set in the context of perceived demographic, ecological, fiscal and political decline in Japan, it explores what a New Meiji initiative would look like in the twenty-first century and whether a new era of renewal is needed to maintain and improve quality of life. An interdisciplinary volume, this book covers contemporary issues in Japanese foreign, defense and nuclear strategies, as well as its aging population, higher education structure and environmental policies. As such Japan’s Future and a New Meiji Transformation will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics, economics and history, as well as Asian Studies more generally.
Japan's Historical Disputes with Neighboring States: Russian Perspectives (ISSN)
by Dmitry StreltsovThis book examines Japan’s relationships with China, Russia, the states of the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan. Analyzing key points of conflict, their roots, and current relations, it highlights their significance for each country. Avoiding a focus on sensitive issues of the historical past per se, it provides a Russian perspective on their impact in Japan and neighboring states, their place in the domestic political discourse, the image of modern Japan in the eyes of political elites and the public and assesses the prospects for improving unfavorable mutual perceptions.Problems of the historical past remain a significant factor in the deterioration of Japan’s relations with China, South Korea, and Russia. Notions of national prestige and historical disputes appear with increasing frequency on the international political agenda in East Asia, driven largely by the economic and military rise of China and the changing military-political balance of power in the region.The book will be of interest to scholars and students of area studies and international relations, especially those specializing in East Asian Studies, Japanese studies, the politics of memory in IR, and problems of national identity.
Japan's International Agenda
by Yoichi FunabashiWhat is Japan's political role in the world? Over the past decade, Japan has been increasingly pressured to assume more financial and political burdens globally. Its foreign policy has thus evolved in a piecemeal manner, around the question of managing foreign pressures. To date, policy has been largely developed by bureaucrats, who are traditionally responsible for public policy in Japan. The lack of a clear set of foreign policy objectives, however, has made it impossible for the bureaucracy to play its previous role as the arbiter of public interests. Today, there is increased recognition that in a more pluralistic society, nongovernmental public policy specialists are needed to provide a more integrated and longer-term vision of foreign policy goals. This book represents the first private and non- governmental indigenous effort to stimulate public debate of Japanese foreign policy. Japan's International Agenda makes a distinctive contribution to the foreign policy debate. Its contributors are younger Japanese non-governmental foreign affairs specialists, each with considerable international experience and committed to the belief that significant policy reforms are essential. As a statement of Japan's ability to contribute substantially to international policy debates on such broad questions of security and trade and development, Japan's International Agenda will enable scholars and experts in North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and elsewhere to engage in substantive dialogue on critical public policy issues with their Japanese counterparts. This book represents the first private, indigenous effort to stimulate public debate of Japanese foreign policy. Its contributors are young Japanese foreign affairs specialists, each with considerable international experience and a commitment to the belief that significant policy reforms are essential.
Japan’s International Cooperation in Education: History and Prospects (Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects #63)
by Nobuko Kayashima Kazuo Kuroda Yuto KitamuraThis book records the history of Japan’s international cooperation in education from the 1950s to 2020. It provides a crucial overview of the nearly 70 years since Japan began engaging in international cooperation in education in order to record and document these efforts that range from basic to higher education to technical and vocational education and training, and the large numbers of people involved in their respective areas of activity and specialization. The book provides useful indicators for exploring new forms of education cooperation in this age of global governance and beyond. The authors include not only researchers but also field practitioners, such as personnel from the Japan International Cooperation Agency and NGOs.
Japan's International Democracy Assistance as Soft Power: Neoclassical Realist Analysis (Politics in Asia)
by Maiko IchiharaJapan has increasingly emphasized democracy assistance since the mid-2000s, such that it now constitutes a major part of Japan’s foreign policy. This approach is an ostensible departure from the country’s traditional foreign policy stance, which tries to avoid bringing values to the forefront of foreign policies. This book intends to answer the questions of why Japan has started emphasizing democracy assistance and why it has relegated itself to a minor role in democracy assistance nevertheless. It argues that Japan’s emphasis on democracy assistance reveals its intention to increase its political influence with regards to China based on democratic values, and its usage of the term "democracy assistance" is a performative speech act to orchestrate a comprehensive approach for international democracy support. Shedding light on the novel aspect of Japanese policy, this book contributes to the understanding of Japanese foreign policy and democracy promotion. Providing the analysis that state’s speech act could cause to create foreign policies that counter what is predicted by structural realism, this analysis makes contributions to neoclassical realism which explains states’ foreign policy choices within the constraints of international structure.
Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Christopher W. Hughes Glenn D. Hook Julie Gilson Hugo DobsonThe latest edition of this comprehensive and user-friendly textbook provides a single volume resource for all those studying Japan's international relations. It offers a clear and concise introduction to the most important aspects of Japan's role in the globalized economy of the twenty-first century. The book has been fully updated and revised to include comprehensive discussions of contemporary key issues for Japan’s IR, including: the rise of China; reaction to the global economic and financial crisis since 2008; Japan’s proactive role after 9/11 and the war on terror; responses to events on the Korean Peninsula; relations with the USA and the Obama administration; relations with Russia, Central Asia and the Middle East; changing responses to an expanding and deepening European Union. Extensively illustrated, the text includes statistics, maps, photographs, summaries and suggestions for further reading, making it essential reading for those studying Japanese politics and the international relations of the Asia Pacific. A note on the cover: The cover illustration entitled 'Double Standard' is a Japanese manga penned by satirical artist Ichihanahana in November 2010 regarding rising Japanese nationalism, Japan-China tensions over the disputed territory of the Senkaku islands and the US presence in Okinawa. This manga demonstrates many of the key themes in Japan’s ties with China and the US, but also a number of other central features of Japan’s international relations as explored throughout this text.
Japan's Interventionist State: The Role of the MAFF (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies)
by Aurelia George-MulganJapan's Interventionist State gives a detailed examination of Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and its role in promoting, protecting and preserving the regime of agricultural support and protection. This account is integral to the author's extended and multidimensional explanation for why Japan continues to provide high levels of assistance to its farmers and why it continues to block market access concessions in the WTO and other agricultural trade talks.
Japan’s Island Troubles with China and Korea: Prospects and Challenges for Resolution (Politics in Asia)
by Victor Teo Haruko SatohThis book examines the Senkaku/Diaoyu dispute between Japan and China and the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute between Japan and Korea, in order to offer new perspectives on the possible approaches towards amelioration and resolution of these conflicts. Japan’s Island Troubles with China and Korea addresses the prospects of and challenges to achieving resolutions in the island disputes, rather than focusing solely on the origins and the political roles they play in the domestic politics of the three nations. Furthermore, in taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book transcends existing studies, which focus on the domestic contexts of the disputes, and therefore avoids the pitfalls of nationalistic narratives. Instead, this book fills a theoretical and methodological lacuna in the academic literature, exploring how the islands could become a point of co-operation, rather than contention. Providing a fresh examination of Japan’s relations with its two closest neighbours, this book will be invaluable to students and scholars of Asian politics and international relations, security studies, and Asia-Pacific studies more generally.
Japan’s Long Stagnation, Deflation, and Abenomics: Mechanisms and Lessons
by Kenji AramakiThis book examines the struggles of the Japanese economy over the last 30 years, analyzing in detail the formation of the huge economic bubble in the 1980s, its collapse at the beginning of the 1990s, and subsequent two decade long economic stagnation and chronic deflation, with the aim of identifying the mechanism of such processes and drawing lessons for future economic policy management. The book also assesses the comprehensive policy efforts called “Abenomics” under the current Abe administration. As Abe continues into a new term, this book will be of interest to Japan scholars, economists, and policymakers around the world, particularly in Asia.
Japan's Lost Decade
by Tim Callen Jonathan D. OstryFor thirteen years excess capacity and debt have weighed down the Japanese economy. This weak economic performance has implications for the world economy as a whole and so the IMF has been involved in a dialogue with the Japanese authorities to identify the policies needed to bring it out of its slump. The papers in this book are part of the process of identifying the causes and proposing solutions. They examine the weakness of the financial sector; corporate restructuring and structural reforms; fiscal policy; monetary and exchange rate policy and the impact of Japanese economic policies on the rest of Asia. The overall conclusion is that although a start has been made on necessary reforms, much still needs to be done
Japan�s Maritime Security Strategy
by Lindsay BlackIn recent times, international society has countered a myriad of 'outlaw' threats at sea, including piracy, terrorism, the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and the threat posed by 'rogue states'. Whilst the US has promoted 'coalitions of the willing' and sought to transform international maritime law in response to these 'outlaws', Japanese governments have developed an innovative maritime security strategy centering on the Japan Coast Guard (JCG). Concerned by Japan's international image as a former imperialist power, Tokyo has relied upon the identity of the JCG as a law enforcement and rescue organization to garner support for its maritime security strategy. Japan's non-military efforts have developed the capacities of states and built institutions in the Southeast Asian region and beyond. The JCG's response to maritime 'outlaws' belies characterizations of Japan as a passive state that does not contribute to international order.
Japan's Middle East Security Policy: Theory and Cases (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Yukiko MiyagiThis study examines how Japanese policy toward Middle East security issues is shaped by the need to both maintain Japan’s security alliance with the US and its oil relationship with states in the Middle East. Yukiko Miyagi introduces the historic roots of Japan’s policy, and then focuses on the major contemporary cases – the Iraq war, the Iranian nuclear crisis, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, to expose and explain how clashing interests and dilemmas were negotiated to arrive at policy outcomes. The author also sheds light on the utility of mainstream International Relations theories for understanding Japan’s behaviour. How do we understand the policy of a self-declared ‘anti-militarist’ state forced to operate in a realist world and for whom energy supplies are a matter of vital national security? This study shows how neither realism nor its rivals, such as constructivism, can wholly explain Japan’s behaviour and suggests a theoretical framework for doing so. Filling a major gap in our understanding of an increasingly important area of study Japan’s Middle East Security Policy is an essential read for those interested in Japan’s International Relations, Middle East politics, security studies and foreign policy.
Japan's National Identity and Foreign Policy: Russia as Japan's 'Other' (The University of Sheffield/Routledge Japanese Studies Series)
by Alexander BukhThis book is the first attempt to examine Japan’s relations with Russia from the perspective of national identity; providing a new interpretation of Japan’s perceptions of Russia and foreign policy. Alexander Bukh focuses on the construction of the Japanese self using Russia as the other, examining the history of bilateral relations and comparisons between the Russian and Japanese national character. The first part of the book examines the formation of modern Japan’s perceptions of Russia, focusing mainly on the Cold War years. The second part of the book examines how this identity construction has been reflected in Japan’s economic, security and territorial dispute related policy towards post-Soviet Russia. Providing not only a case study of the Japan-Russia relationship, but also engaging in a critical examination of existing International Relations frameworks for conceptualizing the relationship between national identity and foreign policy, the appeal of the book will not be limited to those interested in Japanese/Russian politics but will also be of interest to the broader body of students of International Relations.
Japan’s Nationalist Right in the Internet Age: Online Media and Grassroots Conservative Activism (Routledge Contemporary Japan Series)
by Jeffrey J. HallJapan’s nationalist right have used the internet to organize offline activism in increasingly visible ways. Hall investigates the role of internet-mediated activism in Japan’s ongoing historical and territorial disputes. He explores the emergence of two right-wing activist organizations, Nihon Bunka Channel Sakura and Ganbare Nippon, which have played a significant role in pressure campaigns against Japanese media outlets, campaigns to influence historical memorials, and campaigns to assert Japan’s territorial claim to the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, he analyses how activists maintained cohesion, raised funds, held protests that regularly drew hundreds to thousands of participants, and used fishing boats to land activists on disputed islands. Detailing events that took place between 2004 and 2020, he demonstrates how skilled social actors built cohesive grassroots protest organizations through the creation of shared meaning for their organization and its supporters. A valuable read both for scholars seeking insight into the dynamics surrounding Japan’s history disputes and territorial issues, as well as those seeking to compare Japanese right-wing internet activism with its counterparts elsewhere.
Japan's New Party System
by Ronald J HrebenarThe authors of this book have joined together for a third time to produce a book on Japanese political parties and elections. The first two books under the title of The Japanese Party System were also published by Westview Press in 1986 and 1992. This book, Japan's New Party System, has a different purpose than the previous volumes. The first two books had as their task the presentation of a vast amount of material on the various parties of the 1955-1993 party system. Since 1955, Japanese politics and parties had been rather uneventful and predictable; consequently, many Japanese political scientists preferred to study other nations. Decade after decade, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ruled Japan while the permanent opposition party, the Japan Socialist Party GSP) revolved around it but could never even come close to replacing it in power on the national level. All of this changed in 1993 after the LOP split, new parties emerged and formed a non-LOP government, and a new party system began. This book is about the Second Party System and how Japanese politics has changed from the old LOP-dominated First Party System.
Japan's New Regional Reality: Geoeconomic Strategy in the Asia-Pacific (Contemporary Asia in the World)
by Saori N. KatadaSince the mid-1990s, Japan’s regional economic strategy has transformed. Once characterized by bilateralism, informality, and neomercantilism, Japanese policy has shifted to a new liberal strategy emphasizing regional institution building and rule setting. As two major global powers, China and the United States, wrestle over economic advantages, Japan currently occupies a pivotal position capable of tipping the geoeconomic balance in the region.Japan’s New Regional Reality offers a comprehensive analysis of Japan’s geoeconomic strategy that reveals the country’s role in shaping regional economic order in the Asia-Pacific. Saori N. Katada explains Japanese foreign economic policy in light of both international and domestic dynamics. She points out the hurdles to implementing a state-led liberal strategy, detailing how domestic political and institutional changes have been much slower and stickier than the changing regional economics. Katada highlights state-market relations and shows how big businesses have responded to the country’s interventionist policies. The book covers a wide range of economic issues including trade, investment, finance, currency, and foreign aid. Japan’s New Regional Reality is a meticulously researched study of the dynamics that have contributed to economic and political realities in the Asia-Pacific today, with significant implications for future regional trends.
Japan's New World Role
by Joshua D. Katz Tilly C. Friedman-LichtscheinThis book aims to provide a glimpse into the vital debate among Japanese and Western scholars, policymakers, and private sector leaders concerning Japan's future course—a process with implications extending far beyond Japan to the entire world political system.
Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance
by Florentine KoppenborgIn Japan's Nuclear Disaster and the Politics of Safety Governance, Florentine Koppenborg argues that the regulatory reforms taken up in the wake of the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011, directly and indirectly raised the costs of nuclear power in Japan. The Nuclear Regulation Authority resisted capture by the nuclear industry and fundamentally altered the environment for nuclear policy implementation. Independent safety regulation changed state-business relations in the nuclear power domain from regulatory capture to top-down safety regulation, which raised technical safety costs for electric utilities. Furthermore, the safety agency's extended emergency preparedness regulations expanded the allegorical backyard of NIMBY demonstrations. Antinuclear protests, mainly lawsuits challenging restarts, incurred additional social acceptance costs. Increasing costs undermined pronuclear actors' ability to implement nuclear power policy and caused a rift inside the "nuclear village." Small nuclear safety administration reforms were, in fact, game changers for nuclear power politics in Japan. Koppenborg's findings contribute to the vibrant conversations about the rise of independent regulatory agencies, crisis as a mechanism for change, and the role of nuclear power amid global interest in decarbonizing our energy supply.
Japan’s Nuclear Identity and Its Implications for Nuclear Abolition
by Daisuke AkimotoThis book examines Japan’s nuclear identity and its implications for abolition of nuclear weapons. By applying analytical eclecticism in combination with international relations theory, this book categorizes Japan’s nuclear identity as a ‘nuclear-bombed state’ (classical liberalism), ‘nuclear disarmament state’ (neoliberalism), ‘nuclear-threatened state’ (classical realism), and a ‘nuclear umbrella state’ (neorealism). This research investigates whether the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were ‘genocide’ or not, to what degree Japan has contributed to nuclear disarmament, how Japan has been threatened by ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons of North Korea, and how Japan’s security policy has been embedded with the nuclear strategy of the United States. It also sheds light on theoretical factors that Japan does not support the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). Finally, this book considers the future of Japan’s nuclear identity and attempts to explore alternatives for Japan’s nuclear disarmament diplomacy toward a world without nuclear weapons.
Japan's Peace-Building Diplomacy in Asia: Seeking a More Active Political Role (Routledge Security in Asia Pacific Series)
by Peng Er LamThe conventional portrayal of Japan’s role in international affairs is of a passive political player which – despite its position as the world’s second largest economic power – punches below its weight on the world stage: its foreign policy driven by Washington, mercantilism and constrained by domestic pacifism. This book examines Japan’s emerging identity as an important participant in conflict prevention and peace-building in Southeast and South Asia, demonstrating that Japan has increasingly sought a positive and active political role commensurate with its economic pre-eminence. The book considers Japanese involvement in many of the region’s most serious recent conflicts: including Japan’s part in the brokering and maintaining of peace in Cambodia, which in 1992 saw the first dispatch of troops abroad by Tokyo since the end of World War II, and the attempts to bring peace to Aceh, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Mindanao. The Japanese example, when compared with other countries prominent in the fields of conflict prevention, suggests that Tokyo – given its pacifist strategic culture – relies on diplomacy and Official Development Assistance rather than peace enforcement through military means. Overall, this book provides a lucid appraisal of Japan’s overall foreign policy, as well as its new role in conflict prevention and peace-building - analysing the reasons behind this shift towards an active international role and assessing the degree of success it has enjoyed.
Japan’s Peacekeeping at a Crossroads: Taking a Robust Stance or Remaining Hesitant? (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Yuji Uesugi Hiromi Nagata Fujishige Tomoaki HondaThis open access book examines why Japan discontinued its quarter-century history of troop contribution to UN Peacekeeping Operations (1992–2017). Japan had deployed its troops as UN peacekeepers since 1992, albeit under a constitutional limit on weapons use. Japan’s peacekeepers began to focus on engineering work as its strength, while also trying to relax the constraints on weapons use, although to a minimal extent. In 2017, however, Japan suddenly withdrew its engineering corps from South Sudan, and has contributed no troops since then. Why? The book argues that Japan could not match the increasing “robustness” of recent peacekeeping operations and has begun to seek a new direction, such as capacity-building support.
Japan's Political Warfare (Routledge Library Editions: Japan)
by Peter de MendelssohnAfter more than six years of active fighting in the Far East and over two years of open war between Japan and the Anglo-Saxon powers, Japanese political warfare was still a factor largely unknown in the Western world. Overshadowed by the much nearer and more closely felt exertions of the Nazi propaganda machine, it came to be regarded as too remote to have any noticeable bearing on the general course of the war. In the months leading up to Pearl Harbour, Tokyo Radio, the official Domei News Agency and the Japanese press jointly conducted an efficient war of nerves which, for all its alleged clumsiness effectively deceived many in Britain and the USA. The attack on Pearl Harbour showed how Tokyo’s political warfare achieved its object: the creation of a political smoke-screen. During the period of Japan’s conquests in 1942 following Pearl Harbour, and before that in China, Japan’s political warfare showed itself quite capable of producing useful results.The volume is divided into two parts: the first deals with machinery and methods and gives as full and detailed a survey of the various government organs directing and controlling political warfare, the structure of the Japanese press, the organisation of Japanese broadcasting, the functioning of censorship and the extent to which education, science, literature, the arts and the cinema are being employed for purposes of propaganda, both in the Japanese homeland and in the wider area of the conquered empire. The second part deals with the aims and policies of Japanese propaganda, and attempts to give an outline of the way in which the machinery is being operated. It includes an analysis of the main groups of standard slogans and catchphrases which recur everywhere in Japanese propaganda and a special chapter is devoted to the use made of religion for purposes of political warfare.
Japan's Politics and Economy: Perspectives on change (European Institute of Japanese Studies East Asian Economics and Business Series)
by Marie SöderbergFor some time Japan has been under fire for adjusting too slowly to new realities. While this criticism may be valid on some levels, Japan has been transforming in tandem with both regional and global forces. However, these changes have been largely overshadowed by the immense changes in Asia; including the rise of China, the 1997 Southeast Asian financial crisis and North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. Has Japan, the world's second largest economy, only been muddling through? In this volume the contributors show that although the challenges faced are great, Japan is changing in areas ranging from political leadership, education policy, official development assistance, peace building and security, to defence production, business associations and innovation policy. The book analyses processes of change, focusing on the dynamics of change - rather than structural change or institutional change per se - from four levels: the individual, domestic, regional and global. Forces from outside Japan, such as a changing world order and changes in power relationships in Asia, have driven change along with pressures emerging within Japan, such as the increasing power of public opinion and competitiveness within markets. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Japanese and Asian Studies, Politics, International Relations, Globalization, Business and Economics.