After the withdrawal of the Allied Occupation forces, many Japanese political leaders sought for their country a larger and more independent role in world affairs. Thus, the newly installed Hatoyama Government made known its desire for normal diplomatic relations with both the Soviet Union and the (Communist) Republic of china--a goal that became a major Party slogan. The subsequent negotiations for a peace agreement with the Soviet Union precipitated intense domestic political controversy, n part because the issue represented the first major act of foreign policy to be proposed by the government since the restoration of national independence; as such, it attracted many politicians who were just then emerging or reemerging after the Allied purge of pre-war and wartime political leaders. The battle was waged with little concern for the central question of national policy; instead, the main attraction was political--party and factional--power. The two-year conflict, which continued until the conclusion of an agreement with the Soviet Union in 1956, determined many of the characteristic and permanent features that the Japanese political order has displayed since that time. Hence the interest that attaches to this study, which analyzes the political elements affecting the course of negotiations with Russia: public opinion, political parties, private pressure groups, and the formal institutions of government. Mr. Hellmann's perceptive appraisal of the action and interaction of these elements leads to conclusions that challenge many commonly held assumptions about the nature of the Japanese political system, particularly those assumptions concerning the influence of business groups. Since his perspective on the entire political process affecting the negotiations with the Soviet Union is sufficiently broad to permit him to draw parallels with comparable processess in Western nations, the book should interest student of comparative and international politics as well as those concerned with the widening role of Japan in East Asian politics. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1969.

How have shifts in both the international environment and domestic politics affected the trajectory of Japanese foreign policy? Does it still make sense to depict Japan as passive and reactive, or have the country's leaders become strategic and proactive? This book presents a nuanced picture of Japanese foreign policy, emphasizing the ways in which slow, adaptive changes, informed by pragmatic liberalism, have served the national interest.

No country feels China's rise more deeply than Japan. Through intricate case studies of visits by Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine, conflicts over the boundaries of economic zones in the East China Sea, concerns about food safety, and strategies of island defense, Sheila A. Smith explores the policy issues testing the Japanese government as it tries to navigate its relationship with an advancing China. Smith finds that Japan's interactions with China extend far beyond the negotiations between diplomats and include a broad array of social actors intent on influencing the Sino-Japanese relationship. Some of the tensions complicating Japan's encounters with China, such as those surrounding the Yasukuni Shrine or territorial disputes, have deep roots in the postwar era, and political advocates seeking a stronger Japanese state organize themselves around these causes. Other tensions manifest themselves during the institutional and regulatory reform of maritime boundary and food safety issues. Smith scrutinizes the role of the Japanese government in coping with contention as China's influence grows and Japanese citizens demand more protection. Underlying the government's efforts is Japan's insecurity about its own capacity for change and its waning status as the leading economy in Asia. For many, China's rise means Japan's decline, and Smith suggests how Japan can maintain its regional and global clout as confidence in its postwar diplomatic and security approach diminishes.

In 1960 the Japan-United States security treaty was rewritten amid controversy and rancor. In the years since, Japan has astonished the world with her comeback from the status of defeated nation to a major industrial nation. This book is a detailed study of Japan's foreign policy which guided the nation in its resurgence. Five years in the preparation, the book examines the three main pillars of Japanese foreign policy: national prosperity, national security and recognition of Japan as an international power. The author's detailed knowledge of Japanese domestic politics provides the essential background for an understanding of the nation's pursuit of its foreign objectives.

Spanning the 130-year period between the end of the Tokugawa Era and the end of the Cold War, this book introduces students to the formation, collapse, and rebirth of the modern Japanese state. It demonstrates how, faced with foreign threats, Japan developed a new governing structure to deal with these challenges and in turn gradually shaped its international environment. Had Japan been a self-sufficient power, like the United States, it is unlikely that external relations would have exercised such great control over the nation. And, if it were a smaller country, it may have been completely pressured from the outside and could not have influenced the global stage on its own. For better or worse therefore, this book argues, Japan was neither too large nor too small. Covering the major events, actors, and institutions of Japan’s modern history, the key themes discussed include: Building the Meiji state and Constitution. The establishment of Parliament. The First Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars. Party Politics and International Cooperation. The Pacific War. Development of LDP politics. Changes in the international order and the end of the Cold War. This book, written by one of Japan's leading experts on Japan's political history, will be an essential resource for students of Japanese modern history and politics.

Japan's new politics challenge some basic assumptions about U.S.-Japan alliance management. CFR Senior Fellow Sheila A. Smith explores this new era of alternating parties in power and reveals the growing importance of Japan's domestic politics in shaping alliance cooperation.

During half a century after the war Japan's economy was built up from scratch to the world's number two, while its foreign policy has been described by many as passive and even verging on being non-existent. As a contrast, this study evinces how the foundations of Japan's foreign policy were laid in the early postwar period, and how postwar policies have been characterized by pervasive continuity, guided by distinct national goals and expressed in clear-cut national role conceptions.