Abstract
The contemporary debate in Japan and the United States regarding their alliance after the Cold War reflects growing anxiety on both sides over respective strategic requirements in the dramatically altered environment of the Asian-Pacific region. The demise of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of Russia, the growing Chinese power and independent-minded Taiwan, as well as the stalemate on the Korean Peninsula and dangerously isolated North Korea pose serious challenges to the alliance. The task of finding a new strategic relationship between Washington and Tokyo is made more difficult by the recent Asian financial and economic crises, which are now threatening to engulf the US. economy. The two countries alone cannot fend off the destabilizing effects of the virtually uncontrollable flow of capital across the interdependent Asian-Pacific economies and beyond. Their ability to forge a viable strategic alliance in the post—Cold War world hinges increasingly on their ability to cooperate with the other major world powers, particularly the EU—with respect to the management of the globalizing world economy—and China and Russia—with regard to the varied threats to the peace and stability of the Asian-Pacific region.
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Notes
For a review of the evolution of Japan’s perception of the U.S. power through the 1980s, see Tsuneo Akaha, “Japan’s Security Policy after U.S. Hegemony,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 18:3 (Winter 1989): 435–54.
For a detailed analysis of the slow intellectual adjustment in Japan, see Gilbert Rozman, Japan’s Response to the Gorbachev Era, 1985: A Rising Superpower Views a Declining One (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992).
Tsuneo Akaha, “The End of the Cold War and Japanese-Russian Relations,” in Russia in the Far East and Pacific Region, eds. II Yung Chung and Eunsook Chung (Seoul: Sejong Institute, 1994), pp. 327–56.
The description of Japan as a pacifist nation is found in virtually every Japanese work on the nation’s contemporary international policy. For discussions of Japan as a civilian power, see Hanns W. Maull, “Germany and Japan: The New Civilian Powers,” Foreign Affairs 69:5 (Winter 1990–91); Funabashi Yoichi, “Japan and the New World Order,” Foreign Affairs 70:5 (Winter 1991–92): 65; Funabashi Yoichi, Nihon no taigaikoso: Reisengo no bijon o kaku [A Vision for Japan’s External Policy: Fashioning a Post-Cold War Vision] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1993), pp. 159–206.
See for example, Tsuru Shigeto, Nichi-Bei ampo kaisho e no michi [Pathway to the Dissolution of the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996).
For the normal state thesis, see Ichiro Ozawa, Blueprint for a New Japan: Rethinking of a Nation (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1994); Okazaki Hisahiko, “Rekishi no kyokun: Kokusai kankei no shiten” [The Lessons of History: A Perspective on International Relations], in Okazaki Hisahiko, Kokusai josei handan: Rekishi no kyokun, senryaku no tetsugaku [Judging the International Situation: The Lessons of History, Strategic Philosophy] (Tokyo: PHP Kenkyujo, 1996), pp. 275–317.
For the concept of bandwagoning, see Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliances (Ithaca: Cornell University, 1987); Kenneth N. Waltz, “The Emerging International Structure of International Politics,” International Security 18:2 (Fall 1993): 44–79. For a recent Japanese analysis of the U.S.Japan alliance dynamic from the balance of power, bandwagoning, and other theoretical perspectives, see Tsuchiyama Jitsuo, “Nichi-Bei domei no kokusai seijiron: Riarizumu, riberaru seidoron, konsutorakutibizumu” [International Relations Theories of the U.S.-Japan Alliance: Realism, Liberal-Institutionalism, and Constructivism), Kokusai seiji 115 (May 1997): 161–79.
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See for example, Soejima Takahiko, Zokkoku Nipponron [Japan, a Tributary State] (Tokyo: Satsuki Shobo, 1997).
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Prime Minister’s Office, Office of Public Relations, ed., Seron chosa [Public Opinion Survey] (Tokyo: Ministry of Finance Printing Bureau, 1998), p. 36.
This section draws on Akaha Tsuneo, “Beyond Self-Defense: Japan’s Elusive Security Role under the New Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation,” Pacific Review 11:4 (1996): 461–83.
See, for example, Robert A. Manning, “Futureshock or Renewed Partnership: The U.S.-Japan Alliance Facing the Millennium,” The Washington Quarterly 18 (1995): 87–98.
Andrew K. Hanami, “The Emerging Military-Industrial Relationship in Japan and the U.S. Connection,” Asian Survey 33 (1993): 592–609.
Nakamura Hisashi and Malcolm Dando, “Japan’s Military Research and Development: A High Technology Deterrent,” Pacific Review 6 (1993): 177–90.
See, for example, Wayne Sandholtz, Michael Borrus, John Zysman, Ken Conca, Jay Stowsky, Steven Vogel, and Steve Weber, The Highest Stakes: The Economic Foundations of the Next Security System, A BRIE Project (NY: Oxford University Press, 1992).
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The President of the United States, A National Security Strategy of Engagement and Enlargement (Washington, DC: The White House, February 1996), pp. 39–40.
Chalmers Johnson and E. B. Keehn, “The Pentagon’s Ossified Strategy,” Foreign Affairs 74 (1995): 103–10.
Robert A. Manning, “Futureshock or Renewed Partnership: The U.S.-Japan Alliance Facing the Millennium,” The Washington Quarterly 18 (1995): 90–2.
Ralph A. Cossa, “Johnson and Keehn’s Ossified Analysis,” PacNet 35 (6 October 1995).
Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense 1997, “Completion of the Review of the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation,” News Release, New York, 23 September 1997, p. 1.
The following discussion of the new guidelines draws on Tsuneo Akaha, “Beyond Self-Defense: Japan’s Elusive Security Role under the New Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation,” Pacific Review 11:4 (Fall 1998): 461–83.
Roundtable discussion among Sassa Atsuyumi, Taoka Shunji, and Higaki Takashi, Ronza (August 1996): 10–19; reported in FBIS-EAS-96-138.
Hara Yoshihisa, “Josetsu: Nichi-Bei ampo taisei jizoku to hen’yo” [Introduction: The Japan-US. Security Treaty System—Continuity and Change), Kokusai seiji 115 (May 1997): 1–10.
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© 2000 Inoguchi Takashi and Purnendra Jain
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Tsuneo, A. (2000). U.S.-Japan Relations in the Post-Cold War Era: Ambiguous Adjustment to a Changing Strategic Environment. In: Takashi, I., Jain, P. (eds) Japanese Foreign Policy Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62529-1_10
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