The US remains the leading world power, but across the Pacific, Japan has the world s second largest economy and great international economic clout. Some voices in the international arena have urged Japan to play more constructive and politically active roles in the international arena. This volume collects essays analyzing the key issues in Japan s international relations as it heads toward a new world order: the pressing global and regional issues and their domestic implications, the actors, and the major policy directions.

The post–World War II paradigm that ensured security and prosperity for the Japanese people has lost much of its effectiveness. The current generation has become increasingly resentful of the prolonged economic stagnation and feels a sense of drift and uncertainty about the future of Japan's foreign policy. In J apanese Foreign Policy at the Crossroads, Yutaka Kawashima clarifies some of the defining parameters of Japan's past foreign policy and examines the challenges it currently faces, including the quagmire on the Korean Peninsula, the future of the U.S.-Japan alliance, the management of Japan-China relations, and Japan's relation with Southeast Asia. Kawashima—who, as vice minister of foreign affairs, was Japan's highest-ranking foreign service official—cautions Japan against attempts to ensure its own security and well-being outside of an international framework. He believes it is crucial that Japan work with as many like-minded countries as possible to construct a regional and international order based on shared interests and shared values. In an era of globalization, he cautions, such efforts will be crucial to maintaining global world order and ensuring civilized interaction among all states.

As the 20th century closes, the military dimensions of power have receded while economic strength has gained muscle. The United States remains the leading world power, but across the Pacific, Japan has the world's second largest economy and great international economic clout. Some voices in the international arena have urged Japan to play more constructive and politically active roles in the international arena. This volume collects a series of essays analyzing the key issues in Japan's international relations as it heads toward a new world order: the pressing global and regional issues and their domestic implications; the actors; and major policy directions. The book brings together the leading specialists in the field of Japan's international relations to provide detail and interpretations on Japan's foreign policy.

The evolution of Japan's foreign policy at the time of great transformation-cum-transition after World War II is analysed and considered from two angles: a Japan adrift, with an opportunistic, short-term pragmatism, and a Japan determinedly and tenaciously steadfast to its national interests. Inoguchi provides fascinating and balanced accounts of Japan's foreign policy at a time when its premises are seemingly undermined and its domestic and international underpinnings eroding. First published in 1993, this title is part of the Bloomsbury Academic Collections series.

The US remains the leading world power, but across the Pacific, Japan has the world s second largest economy and great international economic clout. Some voices in the international arena have urged Japan to play more constructive and politically active roles in the international arena. This volume collects essays analyzing the key issues in Japan s international relations as it heads toward a new world order: the pressing global and regional issues and their domestic implications, the actors, and the major policy directions.

From a nuclear North Korea and territorial disputes in the East China Sea, to global climate change and Asia-Pacific free trade agreements, Japan is at the center of some of the most challenging issues that the world faces today. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, comprising contributions from the fields of politics, sociology, history, and gender studies, this handbook creates a comprehensive and innovative overview of the field, investigating the widening variety of interests, sometimes competing, that constitute Japanese foreign policy. Organized topically, it is divided into sections, including: • Japan’s evolving foreign policy landscape • Global environmental and sustainable development • International and national security • International political economy • International norms and civil society. Providing an evaluation of the key actors, institutions, and networks influencing Japanese foreign policy, the Routledge Handbook of Japanese Foreign Policy is an essential resource for students and scholars of Japanese and Asian Politics, International Relations, and Foreign Policy.

In Japan's Reluctant Realism , Michael J. Green examines the adjustments of Japanese foreign policy in the decade since the end of the Cold War. Green presents case studies of China, the Korean peninsula, Russia and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the international financial institutions, and multilateral forums (the United Nations, APEC, and the ARF). In each of these studies, Green considers Japanese objectives; the effectiveness of Japanese diplomacy in achieving those objectives; the domestic and exogenous pressures on policy-making; the degree of convergence or divergence with the United States in both strategy and implementation; and lessons for more effective US - Japan diplomatic cooperation in the future. As Green notes, its bilateral relationship with the United States is at the heart of Japan's foreign policy initiatives, and Japan therefore conducts foreign policy with one eye carefully on Washington. However, Green argues, it is time to recognize Japan as an independent actor in Northeast Asia, and to assess Japanese foreign policy in its own terms.