Japan’s unusual position in the realm of international politics encapsulates a three-fold juxtaposition: both in and out of Asia, both occupied by and a close ally of the United States, and both a key trade partner and a strategic rival of China. Whilst international relations theory offers a number of ways to analyse these relations, this book instead utilizes the concept of risk to provide an innovative perspective on Japan’s relations with China, North Korea and the US. The book elucidates how risk, potential harm and harm are faced disproportionately by certain groups in society. This is demonstrated by providing an empirically rich analysis of the domestic implications of security relations with China, North Korea and the United States through the presence of US troops in Okinawa. Beginning with a theoretical discussion of risk, it goes on to demonstrate how the concept of risk adds value to the study of international relations in three senses. First, the concept helps to break down the boundaries between the international and domestic. Second, the focus on risk and the everyday directs us to ask basic questions about the costs and benefits of a security policy meant to secure the national population. Third, what implications do these two points have for governance? The question is one of governance as Japan’s externally oriented security policy produces domestic insecurity shared disproportionately, not equally, as this volume makes clear. Developing the theory of risk as a tool for understanding international relations, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Asian politics, Japanese politics, international relations and security studies, as well as to policy makers and practitioners working in the field.

Excavating the power of memory offers a succinct examination of how memory is constructed, embedded and disseminated in contemporary Japanese society. The unique range and perspective of this collection will provide an understanding not found elsewhere. It starts with a lucid introduction of how memory plays a political and wider social role in Japan. Four case studies follow. The first takes up the divergence in memory at the national and subnational levels by analysing the memory of the battle of Okinawa and US military accidents in Okinawa prefecture, illuminating how memory in the prefecture embeds Okinawans as victims of mainland Japan and of the United States. The second explores whether Japan’s membership of the International Criminal Court represents a shift in the Japanese government’s negative remembrance of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, demonstrating how both courts are largely portrayed as being disconnected in political debates. The third offers an analysis of the surviving letters of the Kamikaze pilots in order to interrogate and compare their presumed identity in the dominant collective memory and their own self-identities. The fourth untangles how the ‘memory of winds’ in Japanese fishing communities remains an expression of social thought that presides over the ‘transmission of meaning’ about fishermen's geographical surroundings. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Japan Forum.

This edited collection explores the historical dimensions, cultural practices, socio-economic mechanisms and political agendas that shape the notion of a national cuisine inside and outside of Japan. Japanese food is often perceived as pure, natural, healthy and timeless, and these words not only fuel a hype surrounding Japanese food and lifestyle worldwide, but also a domestic retro-movement that finds health and authenticity in ‘traditional’ ingredients, dishes and foodways. The authors in this volume bring together research from the fields of history, cultural and religious studies, food studies as well as political science and international relations, and aim to shed light on relevant aspects of culinary nationalism in Japan while unearthing the underlying patterns and processes in the construction of food identities.

Focusing on the experiences of foreign employees working in Japanese firms, this book identifies the trends and realities facing both expatriates and firms in the current landscape of the Japanese labour market. By utilising interview data from both expatriates and Japanese HR staff, this study identifies the fact that self-initiated expatriates often do not remain in Japanese firms for long and highlights the main factors that influence their decisions to leave; including difficulty adjusting to Japan’s lifetime employment system, seniority-based pay, and the prevalence of unpaid overtime. The book reveals that whilst Japanese firms are adjusting to improve the retention of foreign employees, there remains a clear expectation gap between the two sides. Moreover, it outlines further potential adjustments that could be implemented to reduce the turnover rate of expatriates and create a more harmonious workplace both for expatriates and for local employees. This is an urgent challenge for Japan as it faces labour shortages. Featuring an in-depth exploration of first-hand experiences from direct testimonies of expatriates in Japanese firms, this book will be a valuable resource for academics and students of Japanese studies, human resource management, and organisation studies.

East and West have long stood as towering edifices dividing history and the world into separate spheres. In fact, the two poles have not only shared a multitude of connections over the centuries, they have also played essential roles in shaping the identities of their oppositional others. Cultural exchange, mutual imaginings, and other forms of interaction have contributed to both the creation of an exotic other and a framing and definition of the self. The essays in this collection explore the creation and transformation of self image through the encounter between East and West from a variety of disciplinary approaches. Scholars from Japan and Europe apply methodologies and concerns from history, literature, art history, aesthetics, sociology, political science, law, and anthropology to issues of identity formation and transformation at the nexus of East Asia and Europe.

The increase of new complex security challenges and the heightening significance of a diverse array of actors has simultaneously posed a challenge to traditional perspectives on international relations and foreign policy and created an opportunity for new concepts to be applied. Conventional explanations of Japan’s foreign policy have provided us with theoretically predetermined understandings and fallacious predictions. Reformulating risk in its application to the study of international relations and foreign policy, this volume promises new insights into the analysis of contemporary foreign policy in East Asia and Japan’s post-Cold War international relations in particular.

North Korea’s contemporary relations with Japan have been fraught with tension. Tactics employed by Pyongyang have included abductions of Japanese citizens, missile launches over Japanese territory, intrusions into Japanese sovereign waters, and nuclear tests in defiance of Japanese and international condemnation. In light of the security risk the DPRK poses, this book examines how the state, market, and society in Japan have framed North Korea as a salient evil, and have in turn constructed and manipulated the risks posed by their neighbour. Using the example of Japan’s post-Cold War responses to North Korea, this book studies the concept of risk in international relations, and its interactive relationship with domestic civil society. It focuses on how security risks are identified and re-evaluated by policy makers, mass media, and civil society stakeholders, and in doing so disentangles the complex processes by which Japan has framed and recalibrated risks in response to the DPRK. By exploring how risks identified with Pyongyang’s behaviour towards Japan have been mediated between the state, market, and society via mainstream discourse in Japan, Ra Mason highlights the way in which these processes are causally linked to key actors’ conceptions of risk. Indeed, this book provides an original theoretical framework – distinguishing between risk and traditional threat perceptions – through which to address issues of national security and identity, as well as the norms which inform them. Japan’s Relations with North Korea and the Recalibration of Risk will be welcomed by students and scholars across a wide range of fields including Japanese politics, Asia-Pacific studies, international relations, and security studies.