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Dissertation

Nationalism in Japan’s contemporary foreign policy: a consideration of the cases of China, North Korea, and India

01 Feb 2013-
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored how political actors manipulated the concept of nationalism in foreign policy discourse and explored how the two administrations both used nationalism but in the pursuit of contrasting policies: an uncompromising stance to China and a conciliatory approach toward North Korea under the Koizumi administration, a hardline attitude against North Korea and the rapprochement with China by Abe, accompanied by a friendship-policy toward India.
Abstract: Under the Koizumi and Abe administrations, the deterioration of the Japan-China relationship and growing tension between Japan and North Korea were often interpreted as being caused by the rise of nationalism. This thesis aims to explore this question by looking at Japan’s foreign policy in the region and uncovering how political actors manipulated the concept of nationalism in foreign policy discourse. The methodology employs discourse analysis on five case studies. It will be explored how the two administrations both used nationalism but in the pursuit of contrasting policies: an uncompromising stance to China and a conciliatory approach toward North Korea under the Koizumi administration, a hard-line attitude against North Korea and the rapprochement with China by Abe, accompanied by a friendship-policy toward India. These case studies show how the nationalism is used in the competition between political leaders by articulating national identity in foreign policy. Whereas this often appears as a kind of assertiveness from outside China, in the domestic context leaders use nationalism to reconstruct Japan’s identity as a ‘peaceful nation’ through foreign policy by highlighting differences from ‘other’s or by achieving historic reconciliation. Such identity constructions are used to legitimize policy choices that are in themselves used to marginalize other policy options and political actors. In this way, nationalism is utilized as a kind of political capital in a domestic power relationship, as can be seen by Abe’s use of foreign policy to set an agenda of ‘departure from the postwar regime’. In a similar way, Koizumi’s unyielding stance against China was used to calm discontents among right-wing traditionalists who were opposed to his reconciliatory approach to Pyongyang. On the other hand, Abe also utilized a hard-line policy to the DPRK to offset his rapprochement with China whilst he sought to prevent the improved relationship from becoming a source of political capital for his rivals. The major insights of this thesis is thus to explain how Japan’s foreign policy is shaped by the attempts of its political leaders to manipulate nationalism so as articulating particular forms of national identity that enable them to achieve legitimacy for their policy agendas, boost domestic credentials and marginalize their political rivals.
Citations
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Book
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: The seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather, one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deformation as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and de‹ciency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself the enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency. (Ibn al-Haytham)1

512 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions by Ellis S. Krauss and RobERT J. PEKKANEN as discussed by the authors, 2010. 318 pp.
Abstract: ELLIS S. KRAUSS and ROBERT J. PEKKANEN. The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions . Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010. 318 pp. US$26...

56 citations

References
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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In 2005, Japanese prime minister Koizumi Junichiro embarked on his fifth visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which was made in a style somewhat different from before.
Abstract: On October 17, 2005, Japanese prime minister Koizumi Junichiro embarked on his fifth visit to the Yasukuni shrine. However, it was one made in a style somewhat different from before. The prime minister turned up outside the shrine in his official car, wearing a casual suit not a traditional Japanese garment nor a mourning dress, walked up to the shrine, picked some money out of his pocket that he put in the offertory box, and without even entering the shrine walked back to his car and was on his way again. The prime minister no doubt did this with the intention of showing himself visiting the shrine just like any ordinary citizen. It was presumably the ultimate display of his concern over the response from China, South Korea, and other Asian countries, yet it bore no fruit whatsoever. On the contrary, China only voiced even stronger criticism. To be precise, the Chinese government’s reaction was relatively subdued at first, but turned sterner along with the relentless attacks that abounded in tabloid papers and on the Internet. Since then, China has maintained that abandonment of the Yasukuni visit is a condition for resuming summit meetings between Japan and China. Looking back, however, China still showed a rather open attitude toward Japan until the anti-Japanese demonstrations in April 2005.

4 citations

Book ChapterDOI
24 Feb 2011

4 citations

Book ChapterDOI
24 Feb 2011

3 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: As economic globalization advances with the increased fluidity in the movement of goods, people, and money within the world, major changes are also taking place in areas other than economics, and t...
Abstract: As economic globalization advances with the increased fluidity in the movement of goods, people, and money within the world, major changes are also taking place in areas other than economics, and t...

3 citations