Abstract
Since the early 1990s Japan has been searching actively for a post-Cold War international role.1 Some academic observers describe Japanese foreign policy of this decade as continuing to be ‘immobilist’ and ‘reactive’, while others regard Japan as increasingly dominant within the Asian region.2 Between these views, there is increasing interest in the possibility that Japan could fulfil its international contribution through non-military approaches.3 By the end of the 1990s the problem of solving Japan’s domestic troubles was added to this debate over Japan’s international role, in the wake of the bursting of the asset ‘bubble’ and the eruption of a number of scandals and bankruptcies which led to a major financial crisis and a loss of both international and domestic confidence in the yen. In the context of these changing international circumstances several issues have come to dominate discussions over Japan’s contemporary role: the continued importance of the United States; growth and problems in Asia; Japan’s search for multilateral solutions; domestic problems; and Japan’s potential as a ‘civilian power’. This chapter examines the nature of these issues and assesses the extent to which they affect Japan’s relations with the European Union.
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Notes
See, for example, Inoguchi Takashi, Gendai Kokusai Seiji to Nihon (Contemporary International Politics and Japan) (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1991);
Kitaoka Shin’ichi, Kokusaika Jidai no Seiji Shido (Political Leadership in an Era of Internationalization) (Tokyo: Chuokoronsha, 1991);
and Shindo Muneyuki, Gendai Seiji no Horutanatebu (Alternatives for Contemporary Japanese Politics) (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1991). For work in English, see inter alia
Reinhard Drifte, Japan’s Foreign Policy in the 1990s: From Economic Superpower to What Power? (London: Macmillan, 1996);
and Richard D. Leitch, Kato Akira and Martin E. Weinstein (eds), Japan’s Role in the Post-Cold War World (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995).
See Michael Blaker, ‘Evaluating Japanese Diplomatic Performance’, in Gerald Curtis (ed.), Japan’s Foreign Policy (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1993) p. 3. For a view of Japan’s Asia policy,
see Wolf Mendl, Japan’s Asia Policy (London and New York: Routledge, 1995) p. 13;
and see also Thomas U. Berger, ‘From Sword to Chrysanthemum’, International Security, 17 (1993) 149.
See Susan J. Pharr, ‘Japan’s Defensive Foreign Policy in the Politics of Burden Sharing’, in Curtis, Japan’s Foreign Policy, pp. 235–49; and also Akaha Tsuneo, ‘Japan’s Security Agenda in the Post-Cold War Era’, The Pacific Review, 8 (1995) 47.
See John Welfield, An Empire in Eclipse: Japan in the Post-war American Alliance System (London: Athlone Press, 1988);
and for a more recent history, Peter Gourevitch, Inoguchi Takashi and Courtney Purrington (eds), United States-Japan Relations and International Institutions: After the Cold War (San Diego: University of California, 1995).
For details, see Chitta R. Unni, ‘Japan’s Relationship with the United States’, in Patrick Heenan (ed.), The Japan Handbook (London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998) p. 219.
Funabashi Yoichi, Japan’s International Agenda (New York and London: New York University Press, 1994) p. 10.
Akaha Tsuneo, ‘Japan’s Comprehensive Security Policy’, Asian Survey, 31 (1991) 328.
See Bernard K. Gordon, ‘Japan: Searching Once Again’, in James Hsuing (ed.), Asia Pacific in the New World Politics (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1993) pp. 49–70;
and Richard P. Cronin, Japan, the United States, and Proposals for the Asia-Pacific Century (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992) p. 5. For a general history of Japanese participation in Asia,
see Sudo Sueo, Southeast Asia in Japanese Security Policy (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1991).
See William R. Nester, Japan’s Growing Power Over East Asia and the World Economy: Ends and Means (London: Macmillan, 1990) especially pp. 74–8.
Dennis T. Yasutomo, The New Multilateralism in Japan’s Foreign Policy (London: Macmillan, 1995) pp. 166–7;
and Barry Buzan, ‘Japan’s Future: Old History Versus New Roles’, International Affairs, 64 (1988) 565. See also Khong Yuen Foong, ‘ASEAN’s Post-Ministerial Conference and Regional Forum: A Convergence of Post-Cold War Security Strategies’, in Gourevitch, Inoguchi and Purrington, US-Japan Relations, p. 38.
Reinhard Drifte, ‘Japan’s Security Policy and Southeast Asia’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 12 (1990) 189.
Nordin Sopiee, ‘The Development of an East Asian Consciousness’, in Greg Sheridan (ed.), Living with Dragons: Australia Confronts its Asian Destiny (St. Leonards, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1995) pp. 182–4.
Hans H. Baerwald, Party Politics in Japan (Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin, 1986) p. 131.
Edward J. Lincoln, ‘Japanese Trade and Investment Issues’, in Danny Unger and Paul Blackburn (eds), Japan’s Emerging Global Role (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1993) p. 144.
See Roderic Alley, ‘The United Nations and Asia-Pacific: An Overview’, The Pacific Review, 7 (3) (1994) 245–60;
Fujita Hiroshi, ‘UN Reform and Japan’s Permanent Security Council Seat’, Japan Quarterly, 42 (4), (1995) 436–42;and Tanaka Akihiko, ‘UN Peace Operations and Japan-US Relations’, in Gourevitch, Inoguchi and Purrington, US-Japan Relations, pp. 59–83.
For an explanation of this concept, see the introduction to Penelope Francks, Japanese Economic Development (London: Routledge, 1992);
and Bradley M. Richardson and Scott C. Flanagan, Politics in Japan (Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1984) p. 436.
For an examination of Japan’s ‘economic nationalism’ and the bureaucrat’s role within it, see Chalmers Johnson, Japan Who Governs? (London and New York: W. W. Norton, 1995), passim. For a useful overview see Francks, Japanese Economic Development, pp. 17 and 87; and Jennifer Amyx, ‘The Economic Role of the Government’, in Heenan, The Japan Handbook, p. 37. For a recent description of the Japanese economy,
see Victor Argy and Leslie Stein, The Japanese Economy (New York: New York University Press, 1997).
Hanns W. Maull, ‘Germany and Japan: The New Civilian Powers’, Foreign Affairs, 69 (1990–1) 91–106; and his ‘Zivilmacht Bundesrepublik Deutschland’, Europa-Archiv, 47 (1992) 269–78.
Funabashi Yoichi, ‘Japan and the New World Order’ Foreign Affairs, 70 (1991–92) 67.
See also Funabashi Yoichi, ‘The Asianization of Asia’, Foreign Affairs, 72 (1993) 81. This concept of civilian power replaces military power capabilities with economic, technical and developmental assistance criteria, all of which can be used as diplomatic tools. Shikata Toshiyuki also notes how political and economic factors have come to supplement considerations of military power in the debate over Japan’s comprehensive security — see his ‘The Expanding Role of Japan: Opportunities and Problems’, in Trevor Taylor and Sato Seizaburo (eds), Future Sources of Global Conflict (London: RIIA, 1995) pp. 107–23.
Joseph Nye, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power (New York: Basic Books, 1992) pp. 166–70, and p. 188.
See also Kusano Atsushi and Umemoto Tetsuya (eds), Gendai Nihon Gaiko no Bunseki (Analysis of Japan’s Contemporary Diplomacy) (Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1995) p. ii.
See Imai Ryukichi, Kawamura Takekazu, Kurosawa Mitsura and Takamatsu Akira, ‘Nihon ga Inishiachibu wo Toreru Jidai ni natta (Time for Japan to Take the Initiative)’, Gaiko Forum, 96 (1996) 31.
See Kono Yohei, ‘Ninon Gaiko no Shinro (Japan’s Foreign Policy Course)’, Gaiko Forum, 76 (1995) 13–17.
James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993) p. 205.
Albrecht Rothacher, Economic Diplomacy between the European Community and Japan 1959–1981 (Aldershot: Gower, 1983) pp. 235 and 255.
Simon Nuttall, European Political Co-operation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992) p. 147.
Martin Holland, European Union Common Foreign Policy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995) p. 17.
See Eberhard Rhein, ‘The Community’s External Reach’, in Reinhardt Rummel (ed.), Toward Political Union (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992) pp. 31–3.
Brian Bridges, ‘Japan and Europe: Rebalancing a Relationship’, Asian Survey, 32 (1992) 231.
Tanaka Toshiro, ‘EPC in World Society: The Picture from Japan’, Hogaku Kenkyu, 68 (1995) 431.
See also Hiwaki Kensei, ‘Chikyu Shakai no Jizoku Kano na Hatten to: Nihon-EU Kyoryoku wo Kangaeru (Sustainable Development of the Global Community and Indispensable Japan-EU Co-operation)’, Journal of Tokyo International University, 1 (1995) 1–30; Tanaka Toshiro, ‘EC Kameikoku no Seiji Kyoryoku: Sono 10 Nen no Ayumi (EC Member States Political Co-operation: Looking Back on Ten Years)’, EC Studies in Japan, 2 (1982); and Kamo Takehiko, ‘EC Togo to Anzenhosho (EC Integration and Security)’, Kokusai Seiji, 94 (1990).
See Tanaka Toshiro, ‘Euro-Japanese Political Co-operation: In Search for New Roles in International Polities’, Keio Journal of Politics, 5 (1984) 81.
Justus Lipsius, ‘The 1996 Intergovernmental Conference’, European Law Review, 20 (1995) 247.
Thus, for example, there has been European opposition to Japan’s assuming a permanent UNSC seat because of concern that such a representation for Japan would be used to argue that EU member states should have only one seat on the Council — see David Allen and Michael Smith, ‘External Policy Developments’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 32 (1994) 71.
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© 2000 Julie Gilson
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Gilson, J. (2000). Japan and its Changing Views of Europe. In: Japan and the European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333981399_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333981399_3
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