The study focuses on Japan's policies toward international environmental issues and includes case studies on whaling, deforestation in the tropics, and acid deposition in Asia.

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.

This title was first published in 2002: This text attempts to bridge the gap between international relations and comparative politics, with particular reference to East Asia. The book begins with an exploration of the theme of globalization and the impact it has on the conduct of international relations and the process of domestic politics. It discusses the fact that domestic actors are unable to assume an insular political environment as previously, referring to the constant reception of stimuli which force adjustments to approaches in the conduct of domestic and international affairs. Globalization's ubiquitous presence reflects a changed reality for both state and non-state actors - no policy-maker can afford to ignore or underemphasize its role in shaping ior altering the course of public

The essays in this volume examine United States-East Asian relations in the framework of global history, incorporating fresh insights that have been offered by scholars on such topics as globalization, human rights, historical memory, and trans-cultural relations.

This book examines the Japanese government policies that impact on the environment in order to determine whether they incorporate a sufficient ethical substance. Through the three case studies on whaling, nuclear energy, and forestry, the author explores how Western philosophers combined their theories to develop a ‘Western environmental ethics code’ and reveals the existence of a unique ‘Japanese environmental ethics code’ built on Japan’s cultural traditions, religious practices, and empirical experiences. Kagawa-Fox’s discussions show that in spite of the positive contributions that Japan has made towards the global environment, the government has failed to show a corresponding moral obligation to the world ecology in its environmental policy. The book argues that this is a result of the integrity of the policies having been compromised by vested interests and that Japanese business and politics ensure that the policies are primarily focused on maintaining sustainable economic growth. Whilst Japan's global environmental initiatives are the key to its economic survival in the 21st century, and these initiatives may achieve their aims, they do however fail the Japanese code of environmental ethics. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Environmental Studies, Environmental Policy and Ethics, Japanese Politics and Japanese Culture and Society.