Beyond the Gaiatsu Model: Japan’s Asia-Pacific Policy and Neoclassical Realism
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, ris...
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión aceptada para publicación |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) |
| Repositorio: | O2, repositorio institucional de la UOC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:openaccess.uoc.edu:10609/147569 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10609/147569 http://doi.org/10.1177/23477970221076641 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Gaiatsu japanese foreign policy american pressure neoclassical realism política exterior japonesa pressió americana realisme neoclàssic presión americana realismo neoclásico Japan -- International relations Japó -- Relacions internacionals Japón -- Relaciones internacionales |
| Sumario: | 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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