Japanese Environmental Foreign Policy

Abstract

Japanese environmental foreign policy, as does other foreign policy, evolves out of intertwined domestic and international factors. The well-being and economic prosperity of Japanese are ever heavily dependent on a stable international political and economic order. Free and open access to and steady supply of food and energy are Japan’s primary security concerns. As to the diplomatic means for sustaining economic prosperity, postwar political arrangements continue to set its parameters. The no-war clause of the Constitution has prohibited Japan from taking any militarily aggressive foreign policy; it has abided by the spirit and obligation stipulated in the Charter of the United Nations advocating peaceful resolution of international disputes.1 At the same time, the U.S.-Japan security treaty has continuously provided Japan with military security as one of the regional security arrangements that comes within the purview of the UN Charter.2 The established consensus about Japan’s postwar foreign policy is that, although it has the right to defend itself, Japan cannot take part in any collective security activity. Since the end of the Cold War and the Gulf War of 1991, however, this foreign policy framework has come under scrutiny both inside and outside Japan.