For more than fifty years, Japan's foreign policy was strongly marked by its defeat by the allied powers in World War II and the beginning of Cold War bipolarity. In addition to becoming an economic superpower and establishing constitutional pacifism as the bedrock of its political system, Japan also became an 'outstanding partner' for the United States. This formula-the so-called Yoshida doctrine-permitted Japan to focus on economic growth and wealth, leaving security matters to the United States. Despite the anomaly that Japan represented during this period of bipolarity, its strategy allowed the country to achieve security and prosperity. However, the Yoshida doctrine was not designed for the uncertain post-Cold War order. Following almost five decades of occupying this "abnormal" place on the world stage, Japan entered a new period in which new challenges have arisen as a consequence of changes in both the international and domestic systems. For Japan, the demise of the bipolar system meant that the Soviet Union was no longer the most significant threat to its security. At the same time, the collapse of the political party system in 1993 had a major impact on Japan's institutional framework, facilitating a more pro-active and assertive global profile. In post-Cold War Japan, therefore, the country's main concerns can be said to be the fear of abandonment and entrapment by the United States, the relative decline of its economy, the ongoing threats posed by North Korea to Japanese territory, and, last but not least, the uncertain rise of China. In particular, the re-emergence of China as a regional and global power has become an issue of special concern in a period of multi-polarity and power transition and Japan's strategy towards the rise of China in the post-Cold War period is significant for several reasons. First of all, although Japan is not the main player that has to deal with the systemic issue of the rise of China, the Japanese reaction to the re-emergence of China will be an essential factor in determining the balance of power in East Asia. The two countries are the most powerful actors in this region and their strategies towards each other have regional and global consequences for the balance of power. In world history, China-as a rising power-and Japan-as a declining
El desarrollo teórico de las Relaciones Internacionales se encuentra dominado por la academia occidental; no obstante, las teorías autóctonas han tomado un papel destacado en la oposición a dicha dominación. Con el objetivo de realizar una revisión crítica de la literatura sobre las teorías no occidentales se han identificado y analizado como casos de estudio las teorías autóctonas producidas en China y en Japón. En el caso de la academia China concluimos que su desarrollo teórico cuestiona el predominio occidental-céntrico y ha empezado a combatir la hegemonía euroamericana. En cambio, la evolución teórica de la disciplina en Japón avanza en los momentos en que el país se posiciona como potencia en ascenso, mientras que se estanca en períodos en que el país se acomoda al statu quo.
Literature has tended to characterise Japanese foreign policy as primarily reactive to US interests, with many analyses focusing on aspects such as the gaiatsu or US pressure on Tokyo. Some analysts go further and depict Japan as a ‘reactive state’ with a foreign policy characterised as passive, risk-avoiding, ineffective and lacking of assertiveness. Accordingly, changes in Japanese diplomacy occur as a response to international stimuli rather than to domestic needs. However, while outside pressure is crucial in accounting for Japan’s foreign policy, approaches based solely on the gaiatsu/‘reactive state thesis’ fail to provide a full explanation of Japan’s behaviour, particularly in the promotion of regional initiatives. This article studies Japan’s post-Cold War Asian regional policy and shows that its Asia-Pacific strategy cannot be explained as merely a reactive policy with a tendency to concede to US pressure. We aim to fill this gap by adopting a neoclassical realist approach that incorporates gaiatsu and their interplay with intervening variables at the individual and domestic levels. We demonstrate that domestic political actors have played a primary role in defining Tokyo’s Asia-Pacific policy choices and argue that Japan has pursued a relatively independent regional strategy vis-à-vis the USA in the post-Cold War period.
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