From Peace State to Peacekeeping State: Japan’s Changing National Role Conception and Foreign Policy Norms

Abstract

With the onset of the 21st century, Japan is passing through a transformative era in which it is in the process of forming a new national role conception. This study argues that as a result of international pressure, changes in domestic leadership and social norms, and a growing desire for respect in international affairs, Japan has been changing its foreign policy norms and its national role conception. The change in Japanese foreign policy manifests itself most clearly in Japan’s international peacekeeping behaviour and the accompanying new legislation governing the functional limitations on its armed forces. This study suggests that path dependency increases the chance that Japanese foreign policy norms and the resulting behavioural effects will push Japan towards a more internationalist path, with contribution to peacekeeping being its most definitive behavioural outcome, thus offering “peacekeeping state” as a new National Role Conception that has the potential to define Japan’s role in the world in the future.

Keywords

• Japanese Foreign Policy, National Role Conception, Peacekeeping State, Humanitarian Security, Diplomacy, Foreign Policy Norms, Prestige Gap.

References

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3. 3 Ibid, pp. 245-246, emphasis in the original.
4. 4 Ibid, p. 266.
5. 5 Ibid.
6. 6 Ibid.
7. 7 Glen D. Hook, Julie Gilson, Christopher W. Hughes & Hugo Dobson, Japan’s International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security, Oxford, Routledge, 2011.
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9. 9 Even though the agreement is called the Treaty of “Mutual” Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, it brings obligations only for the USA to protect Japan and not vice-versa. Thus supporters of the agreement argued that this is not an infringement of the principle of non-belligerence.
10. 10 At least up until the administration of the coalition government lead by the Social Democrat Party of Japan (1994-96), which accepted the legality of both the SDF and the Security Agreement, thus effectively taking it out of the agenda of Japanese domestic politics to a large extent. It is the Communist Party of Japan that still keeps this issue within its agenda strongly.
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17. 17 It could be argued that since Japan contributes to the UN without delaying its dues and without tying its use to conditions, unlike the USA, it has a more critical role than even the USA does in the financial wellbeing of the UN, even though the USA is the largest contributor.
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20. 20 As cited in: Masayuki Tadokoro, “Change and Continuity in Japan’s Abnormalcy: An Emerging External Attitude of the Japanese Public”, in Yoshihide Soeya, Masayuki Tadokoro, and David A. Welch (eds.), Japan as a ‘Normal Country’? A Nation in Search of its Place in the World, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2011, pp. 38-71; citation 9, p.69.
21. 21 Ibid, pp. 49-51.
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24. 24 Ibid, pp. 34-35.
25. 25 Interviews done with Turkish and Japanese diplomatic circles, Ankara and Tokyo, 2010- 2015.
26. 26 Hatakeyama, “Japan’s peacekeeping policy”.
27. 27 Glen D. Hook, Militarisation and Demilitarisation in Contemporary Japan, London & New York, Routledge, 2003.
28. 28 B. Singh Bhubhindar, “Japan’s Security Policy: From A Peace State to an International State”, Pacific Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2008), pp. 303-325.
29. 29 Ibid.
30. 30 Jun Honna, “Japan and the Responsibility to Protect: Coping with Human Security Diplomacy”, The Pacific Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (2012), pp. 95-112.
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