Abstract
In the last analysis, it is domestic politics that renders Japan’s UN diplomacy dull and ineffective. Foreign policy all too often becomes the victim of political infighting.1
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Notes
Yasushi Akashi, ‘Problems of Japan’s United Nations diplomacy’, Journal of Social and Political Ideas in Japan, vol. IV, no. 1, 1966, p.18.
For a discussion of the various criteria for new Security Council members, see Volker Rittberger and Martin Mogler, ‘Reform des Sicherheitsrats der Vereinten Nationen und ständige Mitgliedschaft Deutschlands’ (Reform of the Security Council and permanent membership of Germany), in Die Reform des UN-Sicherheitsrates. Ein ständiger Sitz für Deutschland?, Blaue Reihe, Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen, No. 70 October 1997, pp.19–20.
Liberal Democratic Party (ed.), Foreign Policy Part 1 Japan’s strategy towards the Asia-Pacific Region, Tokyo: LDP, 1997, p.5.
John Gerard Ruggie, Winning the peace: America and world order in the new era, New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, p.22.
Japan’s Official Development Assistance, Annual Report 1997, Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, p.73. For an excellent and critical discussion of Japan’s official response to US demands for burdern sharing, that is international contribution (Kokusai Koken), see Yoshida Yasuhiko. Yameru Kokuren (The ailing UN), Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 1995, ch. 6.
See John Chapman, Reinhard Drifte and Ian Gow, Japan’s quest for comprehensive security: defence, diplomacy & dependence, London/New York: Frances Pinter/St Martin’s Press, 1983.
Reinhard Drifte, Japan’s foreign policy for the 21st century. From economic power to what power?, London/New York: Macmillan/St Martin’s Press, 1998, pp.121–3. For the ODA Charter, see Japan’s Official Development Assistance, Annual Report 1997, pp.64–6.
Owada Hisashi, Gaiko to wa nanika (What is diplomacy?), Tokyo: NHK Shuppansha, 1996, p.73.
Ozawa Ichiro, Nihon kaizo no keikaku (Plan to reform Japan), Tokyo: Kodansha, 1994, p.127ff.
See Takahiro Shinyo, ‘Reforming the Security Council: A Japanese perspective’, in Ramesh Thakur (ed.), Past imperfect, future UNcertain. The United Nations at fifty, London: Macmillan, 1998, p. 148;
Kazuo Ogura, ‘Challenges for Japanese diplomacy in the Twenty-First century’, Japan Review of International Affairs, vol. 11, no. 4, Winter 1998, pp.324–5.
Sonoda Sunao, Sekai. Nihon. Ai (The world. Japan. Love) Tokyo: Daisan Seikei Kenkyukai, 1981, p. 158. This was also confirmed in an interview with a retired former ambassador in 1997.
For an excellent analysis of Japan’s reaction, see Takashi Inoguchi ‘Japan’s response to the Gulf crisis: An analytical overview’, The Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, Summer 1990, pp.257–74.
See Kweku Ampiah, The dynamics of Japan’s relations with Africa. South Africa, Tanzania and Nigeria, London: Routledge, 1997. For a Japanese account and a table of voting, see Kawabe Ichiro, Kokuren to Nihon, pp. 179–81.
Japan Times, 29 October 1986, p. 16. See also Jun Morikawa, Japan and Africa. Big business and diplomacy, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1997, p.87.
Shiro Saito, Japan at the summit. Japan’s role in the Western alliance and Asian-Pacific cooperation, London: Routledge, 1990, p.74–5.
Yukio Imagawa, ‘The recent situation in East Asia and Cambodia’, Asia-Pacific Review, vol. 5, no. 1, Spring Summer 1998, p. 131.
Yasuhiro Ueki, ‘Japan’s approach to UN peacekeeping and peacekeeping’, in The US and Japan in the changing environment for multilateral organizations. Papers and Workshop Summaries, New York: City University of New York, 1993, p.59.
See Damien Healy, ‘Japan’s contribution to UNTAC’, in Alex Morrison and James Kira (eds), UN Peace Operations and the role of Japan, Clementsport: The Canadian Peacekeeping Press, 1996, p.85.
Yasuhiro Ueki, ‘Japan’s UN diplomacy: Sources of passivism and activism’, in Japan’s foreign Policy. After the Cold War. Coping with change, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1993, p.62.
Sydney Bailey and Sam Daws (eds), The procedure of the UN Security Council, 3rd edn, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998, p.380.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peacekeeping, Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to the Statement Adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on January 31, 1992, New York: United Nations, 1992.
Michael Schaefer, ‘Die neue Rolle des Sicherheitsrates — Warum soll Deutschland ständiges Mitglied werden?’ (The new role of the Security Council — Why should Germany become a permanent member?), in Eltje Aderhold et al. (eds) Festschrift für Hans Hanisch, Cologne: Carl Heymanns Verlag, 1994, p.204.
See, for example, Sato Seizaburo, ‘Joninirijikoku ni narou to shinai no wa musekinin’ (Not wanting to become a Permanent member is irresponsible). Nihon Kokusai Foramu Kaiho, vol. 1, no. 4, Fall 1994, p.3.
Samuel S. Kim, ‘China and the United Nations’, in Michael Oksenberg and Elizabeth Economy (eds), China joins the world — progress and prospects, New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1998, p. 11 (chapter manuscript before publication).
Aurelia George, ‘Japan’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations’, Asian Survey, vol. XXXIII, no. 6 June 1993, p.563.
For the latter, see for example, John Ruggie, ‘Japan had to join UN peacekeeping effort (Letter to the Editor)’, New York Times, 18 June 1992; also Roger A. Coate (ed.), US policy and the future of the United Nations, New York: The twentieth Century Fund Press, 1994, p.241.
For writings of some supporters arguing in favour of military PKO contributions, see, for example, Komuro Naoki, ‘Higunji sanka nado shoshi. Kokuren wa ima mo gunji domei de aru koto o ninshiki seyo’ (Non-military participation is ridiculous. Let’s recognize that the UN is still a military alliance), in Nihon no ronten ′96, Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 1995, pp.202–7.
Koizumi Junichiro, ‘Kokuren joninrijikoku iri’ (Becoming a member of the UN Security Council), Nihon Kokusai Foramu Kaiho, vol. 1, no. 4, Fall 1994, p.4.
Selig S. Harrison and Masashi Nishihara (eds), UN peacekeeping. Japanese and American perspectives, Washington: Carnegie Endowment Foundation, 1995, p.7.
Milton Leitenberg, ‘The participation of Japanese military forces in United Nations peacekeeping opeations’, Occasional Paper 27 March 1996, Center for Pacific Asia Studies at Stockholm University, pp.33–4.
For a criticsm of UNTAC’s non-use of force, see Michael W. Doyle, UN peacekeeping in Cambodia. UNTAC’s civil mandate, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1995, pp.67–8.
Koizumi Junichiro and Nakanishi Keisuke, Asahi Shimbun, 18 November 1994. Yoshida Yasuhiko uses the expression ‘Ninon tokushuron’ (view of Japan’s specialness) to describe this exceptionalism. See Yoshida, Yameru Kokuren, p.42.
For a critical analysis of the genesis of the International Peace Cooperation Law, see Kenichi Ito, ‘The Japanese state of mind: Deliberations on the Gulf crisis’, The Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, Summer 1991, pp.275–90.
Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 27 March 1993, p.2, quoted in Richard D. Leitch, Akira Kato and Martin E. Weinstein, Japan’s role in the post-Cold War world, Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1995, p.48.
This concern was also strongly expressed when a few Japanese electoral observers took part in UNAVEM II in September-October 1992, and the Japanese government demanded special treatment of their citizens, in contrast to all the other 398 observers; Margaret Joan Anstee, Orphan of the Cold War. The inside story of the collapse of the Angolan peace process, 1992–93, London: Macmillan, 1996, pp.187–8.
Richard N. Haass, Intervention: the use of American military force in the post-Cold War world, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment, 1994, p. 17.
Mayumi Itoh, Globalization of Japan. Japanese sakoku mentality and US efforts to open Japan, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1998, p. 172.
Quoted in Emma Matanle, The UN Security Council. Prospects for reform, London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995, p.23.
In 1995 the General Assembly finally agreed on a resolution to accept a report to consider the elimination of the enemy clauses (Resolution 50/52 of the Sixth Committee adopted on 6 December 1995), saying that it ‘recognizes… that the “enemy State” clauses in Articles 53, 77 and 107 of the Charter of the United Nations have become obsolete’. The resolution expresses the intention of the General Assembly to ‘initiate the procedure set out in Article 108 of the Charter… to amend the Charter’. However, it never went further than this intention. See Paul Taylor, Sam Daws and Ute Adamczick-Gerteis (eds), Documents on reform of the United Nations, Aldershot: Dartmouth; 1997, p.553.
Ibid. (quoting UN Ambassador Detlev Graf zu Rantzau). The most recent mention found by this author was by Ambassador Tono Eitel on 21 March 1997: Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations (ed.), The UN reform. Reform of the Security Council. The German position, vol. II. Statements and talking points June 1996-October 1997, New York: Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations, November 1997, p.17.
Kawabe Ichiro, ‘Nihon wa Kokuren joninrijikoku iri o mezasu beki ka’ (Should Japan aim for UN Security Council membership?), in Imidasu, 1997, p.9. For a list of the major resolutions on ‘freezing of nuclear armament’, ‘the non-use of nuclear weapons’ and ‘Zone of peaceful cooperation in the South Pacific’ and the voting pattern by Japan, the US and Finland, see ‘Heiwa sozo e koken o’ (Towards a contribution to peace making), Tokyo Shimbun, 17 December 1996.
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© 2000 Reinhard Drifte
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Drifte, R. (2000). Japan’s Multilateral Record and the Rationale for the Bid. In: Japan’s Quest for a Permanent Security Council Seat. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-07467-6_3
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