Japans Evolving Foreign Policy Doctrine

During half a century after the war Japan's economy was built up from scratch to the world's number two, while its foreign policy has been described by many as passive and even verging on being non-existent. As a contrast, this book evinces how the foundations of Japan's foreign policy were laid in the early postwar period, and how postwar policies have been characterized by pervasive continuity, guided by distinct national goals and expressed in clear-cut national role conceptions. The far-reaching changes after the end of the Cold War transformed Japans domestic political system. Consequently, the analyses for 194693 (covered in the first edition) and 19932020 (added in the current edition) are structured differently. In the former, each prime minister gets a chapter except for the initial period 194654 when three premiers figure, while the prime ministers for 19932020 are treated as members of triads, except the long-reigning Koizumi Junichir and Abe Shinz.