International Relations Of Japan Research Articles

Socio-Spatial Multiplicity in World Politics: Non-Western Regional Imaginations of the Indo-Pacific

Abstract Originally a biogeographic term, “Indo-Pacific” is increasingly replacing “Asia-Pacific” in political discourse. This is not merely a linguistic matter but also has political implications. However, the meaning of “Indo-Pacific” remains unclear, and its implications are contested. While it has attracted the attention of a wide spectrum of political pundits, the regional designation “Indo-Pacific” is used to describe a space of global cooperation and geopolitical competition. This study makes two contributions by reexamining this debate. First, it helps lift the fog around the Indo-Pacific to gain a deeper understanding and encourage reflection on its current rise. Thus, it is situated within a growing body of literature that excavates the complex history of the Indo-Pacific by revisiting its Japanese wartime origins. Second, drawing on the emergent literature on multiplicity, this study shows how the term has historically invoked two different kinds of international relations in Japan. This suggests the importance of examining multiple socio-spatial imaginations internalized by diverse collectivities in the social space of international politics that goes beyond modern European state borders. Introduced by the Japanophile German geopolitician Karl Haushofer, the term was originally used to express the area of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, a region that aimed to create a world order that differed from the Western one. This significantly contradicts contemporary usage by the Japanese government, which claims that universal values exist in the region.

The Japanese conservative camp's bridging method for China–Japan relations under the separation of politics and the economic policy: investigation of the case of the Kenzo Matsumura Group, 1959–1972

AbstractFrom the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco to the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, Japan has always adopted a political and economic separation policy that maintains diplomacy with Taiwan and economic and cultural relations with China. Within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, to break the existing deadlock, Kenzo Matsumura of the Japanese House of Representatives and others formed a foreign policy group in 1959. This group spoke highly of China's importance to Japan's development on the grounds of national interests rather than ideology and national sentiments, played a bridging role in the political communication between China and Japan, and created a precedent for the nontraditional improvement of international relations in Japan.

The Genealogy of Culturalist International Relations in Japan and Its Implications for Post-Western Discourse

This paper aims to introduce a neglected methodology from Japanese international relations (IR) – the culturalist methodology – to Anglophone specialists in IR. This methodology is neglected not only by an Anglophone audience but also by Japanese IR scholars. I argue here that despite this negligence, the culturalist methodology has great potential to contribute to contemporary post-Western international relations theory (IRT) literature by posing radical questions about the ontology of IR, as it questions not only the ontology of Western IR, but also the IR discourses developed in the rest of the world. Consequently, in understanding and imagining the contemporary world, I clarify the importance of perceptions based on what, in Japan, are commonly called ‘international cultural relations’ (kokusai bunka) and ‘regional history’ (chiikishi). I also indicate how our perceptions of the world are limited by the Westphalian principles of state sovereignty and non-intervention among ‘equal’ nations on the basis of state borders. While historical understanding is widely recognised as an important approach to contemporary IR, its scope is limited by its universalised principles.

Comment on “Role of Sport in International Relations: National Rebirth and Renewal”

Comment on “Role of Sport in International Relations: National Rebirth and Renewal”

Japan and identity change: why it matters in International Relations

Two approaches to identity have been employed to explore issues in Japan's international relations. One views identity as constituted by domestic norms and culture, and as constitutive of interests, which in turn cause behaviour. Proponents view Japan's ‘pacifist’ and ‘antimilitarist’ identity as inherently stable and likely to change only as a result of material factors. In the other approach, ‘Japan’ emerges and changes through processes of differentiation vis-à-vis ‘Others’. Neither ‘domestic’ nor ‘material’ factors can exist outside of such identity constructions. We argue that the second, relational, approach is more theoretically sound, but begs three questions. First, how can different identity constructions in relation to numerous Others be synthesised and understood comprehensively? Second, how can continuity and change be handled in the same relational framework? Third, what is the point of analysing identity in relational terms? This article addresses the first two questions by introducing an analytical framework consisting of three mutually interacting layers of identity construction. Based on the articles in this special issue, we argue that identity entrepreneurs and emotions are particularly likely to contribute to change within this model. We address the third question by stressing common ground with the first approach: identity enables and constrains behaviour. In the case of Japan, changes in identity construction highlighted by the articles in this special issue forebode a political agenda centred on strengthening Japan militarily.

Japan and the Changing Global Balance of Power: The View from the Summit

This article explores Japan's relative decline and its responses to the changing global balance of power through a case study of one symptom of this shift: the rise of the G20 as the ‘premier forum for international economic co-operation’ at the expense of the G8. The G8 has traditionally held a significant position in Japan's international relations that appears to be undermined by the rise of the G20. Japan's responses to these developments reveal it to be a status quo power that is still committed to internationalism and multilateralism and looking for a constituency to lead.

Introduction Risk and security in Japan: from the international to the societal

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgements The authors of this special issue would like to thank Andrew DeWit for inviting us to an international workshop on the ‘Political Economy of Risk’ at Rikkyo University, 10–11 November 2007, where earlier drafts of these articles were presented, and all of the workshop participants for their comments. Warm thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions for revisions and to Paul Midford for shepherding this issue to press. Glenn D. Hook is the Toshiba International Foundation Anniversary Research Professor of Japanese Politics and International Relations in the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, and Director of the National Institute of Japanese Studies, UK. His research interests are in Japanese politics, international relations and security, particularly in relation to East Asia. His recent work includes: Ending the Postwar in Japan: Structure, Actors, Norms and Challenges (co-editor, Routledge, 2010); Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security, 2nd edn (co-author, Routledge, 2005); and Contested Governance in Japan: Sites and Issues (editor, 2005, RoutledgeCurzon). He may be contacted at: g.hook@sheffield.ac.uk.

Political Theory of Systemism from Japan

In this article, the author would like to show the readers a new political theory of systemism based upon a new world view after he worked on political theories and philosophies, political economies, and international relations in Japan for 40 years or so. During the period he had questioned or puzzled about an epistemological or ontological construction of basic ideas: atomism and holism in science, and individualism and collectivism in politics and philosophy. Such ideas in science and in politics and philosophy might be effective in the past history of our humanity; they are not effective in the present time to one narrow earth that inter-depends each entity evolved in a great network of living things. The view of systemism, not individualism or collectivism goes beyond the latter two. Systemism as a world view is sketched as the world inter-depending each entity and interrelating each humanity in society or each nation-state in a global community. This means that old political theories based on individualism and collectivism should change to a new political theory of systemism. He will try to examine such changing theories by answering about what systemism is, and what political theory of it is, as following Japanese historical experiences and tradition, and ideas of Mario Bunge and a few systems theorists. Key words: Mario Bunge, Individualism, Collectivism, Systemism, Global Order

The invisible hand: modern studies of international relations in Japan, China, and Korea

This study tests a long-held claim about the role of a country's international practice in the shaping of its International Relations (IR) studies, using the cases of Japan, China, and Korea. The study finds sufficient evidence for a close link, but also interesting variations across the countries, different historical periods as well as different types of IR research and publications. The practice–discipline link is crucial for a fuller understanding of the structure and evolution of the IR discipline and requires systematic empirical investigation, particularly with cases beyond the core national IR countries. Assessing the precise nature of the practice–discipline link, this study adds value to existing research on national IR studies that have so far focused primarily on the impact of the American IR theories and debates and, more recently, on the domestic cultural-institutional context.

Are there any theories of international relations in Japan?

AbstractThis article argues that there are theories of international relations (IR) in Japan and that these theories are mostly of middle range type. I first give a brief survey of IR studies in Japan and its disciplinary backgrounds. On that basis, then I focus on the three outstanding cases of fledgling theories of IR as developed in the 1920s and 1930s, namely Nishida as an innate constructivist, Tabata as an international law theorist presupposing the natural freedom of individuals, and Hirano as an economist placing regional integration higher than state sovereignty, to develop the argument that there are indeed theories of IR in a fledgling form already before World War II.

`Pre-History' of International Relations in Japan: Yanaihara Tadao's Dual Perspective of Empire

This article seeks to locate the work and contribution of Yanaihara Tadao (1893-1961) within a distinct tradition of International Relations in Japan. It challenges the conventional view that Japanese International Relations originates in the US academic discipline. Yanaihara's view of empire was influenced by two academic traditions in Japan: the Staatslehre and Marxism, and by his humanist, moral view derived from a Christian faith. According to Yanaihara, any empire should be built upon an organic, moral society, which provides an overarching framework for peaceful coexistence between nations and ethnic nations within the empire. Yet, he also made it clear that the existing empires were essentially an outflow of economic and/or ideological imperialism. Such a perspective allowed him to avoid justifying the disastrous Japanese expansionism of the 1930s. The article highlights implications for the debate on the role of US Empire in today's International Relations.

The international relations of Japan and South East Asia: forging a new regionalism

1. Introduction: Japanese Foreign Relations and South East Asia 2. The Nurturing of a New Regionalism in South East Asia: ASEAN-PMC and Japan 3. Japan's Dynamic Foreign Policy Toward South East Asia: Three Doctrines 4. Japan's Economic Networking: ODA as an Active Foreign Policy 5. Japan's Political Networking: in Search of a Security Role 6. Moulding a New Regionalism in East Asia: Japanese Leadership in the 1990s 7. Conclusion: Whither Japan-South East Asian Relations?

The Sociology of a Not-So-Integrated Discipline: The Development of International Relations in Japan

Stimulated by Ole Waever's (1998) examination of American and European developments in International Relations, this article examines the growth of the discipline of international relations in Japan, focusing on the major currents of the social science tradition since 1868 and the intellectual agenda of international relations since 1945. Postwar scholarship has reflected the main themes and questions of Japanese history — the causes of war, the struggle for peace, Japan's place in the world and Asia, and Japan's role in the Cold War. To an extent, the organization and substance of IR teaching and scholarship in Japan can be explained by reference to certain sociological and historical variables. Discussions about methodology have not mirrored the “great debates” of the United States, but the younger scholars are moving closer to the American pattern. Recent exposure to and interaction with American scholarship has become increasingly visible, allowing Japanese scholars to make important contributions to debates in the US.

Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics, and Security

The 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.

The study of international relations in Japan: towards a more international discipline

The study of international relations in Japan: towards a more international discipline

Teaching International Relations in Japan

Teaching International Relations in Japan

Japan

Essay| December 01 1993 Japan: The End of One-Party Dominance Stephen J. Anderson Stephen J. Anderson Stephen J. Anderson has been a research fellow in Tokyo at the Asian Forum. He is teaching at the University of Virginia and is the author of Welfare Policy and Politics in Japan: Beyond the Developmental State (New York: Paragon House, 1993), as well as articles on the public policy, politics, and international relations of Japan. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Current History (1993) 92 (578): 406–412. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1993.92.578.406 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Stephen J. Anderson; Japan: The End of One-Party Dominance. Current History 1 December 1993; 92 (578): 406–412. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1993.92.578.406 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCurrent History Search This content is only available via PDF. © 1993 by The Regents of the University of California1993 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Book Reviews: Maynard Keynes: An Economist's Biography, Locke, Volume I: Epistemology, An Essay on the Principle of Population, Principles of Political Economy, Marxism and Nationalism: Theoretical Origins of a Political Crisis, The Internationalization of Japan, Japan and the European Community, Japan's International Relations, Political Life in Japan: Democracy in a Reversible World, Canada and Japan in the Twentieth Century, De

Book Reviews: Maynard Keynes: An Economist's Biography, Locke, Volume I: Epistemology, An Essay on the Principle of Population, Principles of Political Economy, Marxism and Nationalism: Theoretical Origins of a Political Crisis, The Internationalization of Japan, Japan and the European Community, Japan's International Relations, Political Life in Japan: Democracy in a Reversible World, Canada and Japan in the Twentieth Century, De

Japan's international relations

Journal Article Japan's international relations Get access Japan's international relations. By Takashi Inoguchi. London: Pinter. 1991. 190pp. Index. £39.50; ISBN 0 86187 076 x. Pb.: £10.95; ISBN 0 86187 095 6. Gerald Segal Gerald Segal 1International Institute for Strategic Studies Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar International Affairs, Volume 68, Issue 3, July 1992, Pages 516–517, https://doi.org/10.2307/2622978 Published: 01 July 1992

Power, policymaking, and foreign relations

William R. Nester, The Foundation of Japanese Power: Continuities, Changes, Challenges. Macmillan, Houndsmill and London, 1990, pp. 418. Hardback £45, paperback £19.50. Kathleen Newland, editor, The International Relations of Japan. Macmillan in association with Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Houndsmill and London, 1990, pp. 232. Hardback £40, paperback £14.99.