Japan’s Foreign Policy Line after the Cold War

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan has long been searching for a new foreign policy to reflect the change from a bipolar system.1 Following its convincing defeat in World War II, Japan developed what was later called the Yoshida Doctrine, named after the architect of postwar Japanese foreign policy line, Shigeru Yoshida.2 The Yoshida Doctrine is often summarized as doing business for business sake, but with the business of the state being left on the shoulders of the United States. For the first 15 years after 1945, the Japanese public was not entirely persuaded that the Yoshida Doctrine offered the best approach. Rather the opposition captured the postwar pacifist zeitgeist.3 The government was not able to fulfill its own security function, apart from carrying out disaster relief and providing auxiliary assistance in the form of space and freedom to the US forces stationed in, and coming to, Japan, especially during the Korean War, 1950–1953. Thus the Japan-US alliance experienced a bumpy road for a while.