Abstract
As in many other countries, so also in Japan domestic politics provides an important context within which foreign policy is formulated. In many respects, constraints imposed by domestic politics on foreign policy can be stronger in Japan than in many other countries. In recollecting the process involved in the normalization of relations with China, the late Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei once said, “Issues of Japan-China relations have been domestic issues rather than diplomatic issues.”1 Some of the critical foreign policy areas such as Sino-Japanese relations have long been dominant themes of maneuvering among domestic actors in the Diet, in the interagency bureaucracy, and in the media. In these cases, changes in the international environment can affect Japan’s foreign policy via the complex intervening mechanism of domestic politics. Foreign policy issues that have an immediate impact on domestic politics include the U.S. Japan alliance, policy toward the Korean Peninsula, and trade liberalization, especially of agricultural products.
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Notes
Yanagida Kunio, Nihon wa moeteiruka [Is Japan in Flames?] (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1983), p. 266.
Recent studies on the “reactiveness” of Japan’s international behavior and the efficacy of “external pressure” include: Kent E. Calder, “Japanese Foreign Economic Policy Formation: Explaining the Reactive State,” World Politics 40:4 (1988); Leonard J. Schoppa, Bargaining with Japan: What American Pressure Can and Cannot Do (NY: Columbia University Press, 1997); and Taniguchi Masaki, Nihon no taibei hoeki kosho [Japan’s Trade Negotiations with the United States] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1997).
See, for example, Gerald L. Curtis, The Japanese Way of Politics (NY: Columbia University Press, 1988); and Muramatsu Michio, Ito Mitsutoshi, and Tsujinaka Yutaka, Nihon no seiji [Japanese Politics] (Tokyo: Yuhikaku, 1992).
For a comparable treatment of this subject in English, see Kent Calder, “The Institutions of Japanese Foreign Policy,” in The Process of Japanese Foreign Policy, ed. Richard L. Grant (London: The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1997), pp. 1–24. Useful studies can be found in chapters of Robert A. Scalapino, ed., The Foreign Policy of Modern Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977); Hosoya Chihiro and Watanuki Joji, eds., Taigai seisaku kettei katei no Nichi-Bei hikaku [Japan-US. Comparison of Foreign Policy-Making Process] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1977); Aruga Tadashi, et al., eds., Koza kokusai seiji, 4, Nihon no gaiko [Studies of International Politics, vol. 4., Japan’s Diplomacy] (University of Tokyo Press, 1989).
For a general discussion of the role and power of prime ministers, see Shinoda Tomohito, Soridaijin no kenryoku to shidoryoku [The Power and Leadership of Prime Ministers] (Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Shimposha, 1994).
A concise explanation is given by Ishihara Nobuo, “Naikaku no shikumi to shusho no kengen” [The Mechanisms of the Cabinet and the Powers of Prime Ministers] in Naikaku gyosei kiko: Kaikaku e no teigen [The Yomiuri Proposal for Restructuring the Cabinet and the Government Administration], ed. Yomiuri Shinbunsha (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbunsha, 1996), pp. 103–107.
For a concise comparison between British and Japanese politics, see Yamaguchi Jiro, Igirisu no seiji Nihon no seiji [British and Japanese Politics] (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1998).
Murayama gives a candid recollection of his tenure as prime minister in Murayama Tomiichi, So ja no [Well, Let’s See] (Tokyo: Dai-san Shokan, 1998).
For Gotoda’s career and experiences as chief Cabinet secretary, see Gotoda Masaharu, Seiji to wa nanika [The Nature of Politics] (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1988); Gotoda Masaharu, Naikaku kanbo chokan [Chief Cabinet Secretary] (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1989); Gotoda Masaharu, Jo to ri: Gotoda Masaharu kaikoroku [Sentiment and Reason: Memoirs of Gotoda Masaharu], 2 vols. (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1998).
Murayama Tomiichi describes Ishihara as a “permanent presence in the prime minister’s residence” (kantei no nushi) (Murayama, 1998, p. 81). However, Ishihara’s long tenure is exceptional; tenure of previous deputy chief Cabinet secretaries was much shorter. But since late 1970s, their tenure is longer than most prime ministers. For Ishihara’s career and experiences, see Ishihara Nobuo, Kantei 2668 nichi: Seisaku kettei no butaiura [2668 Days in the Prime Minister’s Residence: The Backstage of Decision-making] (Tokyo: NHK Shuppan, 1995); and Mikuriya and Watanabe, 1997.
Shinoda Tomohito, “Taigai seisaku kettei akuta toshite no Ozawa Ichiro” [Ozawa Ichiro as a Foreign Policy Decision-maker] in Nihon no gaiko seisaku kettei yoin [Domestic Determinants of Japanese Foreign Policy], ed. Gaiko Seisaku Kettei Yoin Kenkyukai (Tokyo: PHP Kenkyujo, 1999), pp. 25–69.
Sekai Heiwa Kenkyujo, ed. Nakasone naikakushi: Shiryo-hen [History of the Nakasone Cabinet: Documents and Materials] (Tokyo: Sekai Heiwa Kenkyujo, 1995).
For a more detailed description of this episode, see Tanaka Akihiko, Anzen hosho: Sengo 50 nen no mosaku [National Security: Postwar Japan’s Fifty Years of Groping] (Tokyo: Yomiuri Shimbunsha, 1997), pp. 289–91.
The most up-to-date study on the decision-making processes of various ministries can be found in Shiroyama Hideaki, Suzuki Hiroshi, and Hosono Sukehiro, eds., Chuo shocho no seisaku kettei katei—Nihon kanryosei no kaibo [The Decision-making Processes of Central Ministries and Agencies: The Anatomy of the Japanese Bureaucracy] (Tokyo: Chuo University Shuppankai, 1999).
Not much has been studied about the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. The exception is Nakamura Akira, Sengo seiji ni yureta kenpo 9 jo [The Ups and Downs of Article 9 of the Constitution in Postwar Politics] (Tokyo: Chuo Keizai Sha, 1996).
Zoku simply means “tribe,” but in the context of Japanese domestic politics it means a group of Diet members who are closely connected with certain special interests such as agriculture, construction, and transportation. See Inoguchi Takashi and Iwai Tomoaki, “Zoku” giin no kenkyu [A Study of Zoku Diet Members] (Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 1987).
Somewhat dated but still useful studies on the relations between the business community and foreign policy are Sadako Ogata, “The Business Community and Japanese Foreign Policy: Normalization of Relations with the People’s Republic of China,” in Scalapino, 1977, pp. 175–203; and Otake Hideo, Zoho kaiteiban gendai Nihon no seiji kenryoku keizai kenryoku [Political and Economic Powers in Contemporary Japan, Expanded and Revised] (Tokyo: San-ichi Shobo, 1996). Though not exclusively focusing on international relations, the following provides more updated analysis of Japan’s interest groups including business organization: Tsujinaka Yutaka, Rieki shudan [Interest Groups] (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1988).
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© 2000 Inoguchi Takashi and Purnendra Jain
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Akihiko, T. (2000). Domestic Politics and Foreign Policy. In: Takashi, I., Jain, P. (eds) Japanese Foreign Policy Today. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62529-1_1
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