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AbstractAmid United States-led efforts to internationalize and multilateralize support for Taiwan and cross-Strait deterrence in response to mounting coercive pressure from China, the April 2021 and May 2021 U.S.-Japan and U.S.-South Korea summit statements’ unprecedented references to ‘peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait’ triggered global headlines. In the 3 years since, U.S. expectations for treaty allies to do and say more in support of Taiwan and cross-Strait deterrence have surged. But what of the perspectives and policies of key front-line treaty allies Japan and Korea, each host to tens of thousands of forward-­deployed U.S. forces? This study comparatively analyzes the historical and contemporary evolution of Japanese and Korean positions and policies vis-à-vis Taiwan and the role their leaders see for their country and respective alliance with the U.S. in the event of a ‘regional contingency’: a conflict not involving—at least initially—armed attacks on ally-administered territory. After highlighting the similarities between Seoul’s and Tokyo’s intentionally ambiguous positions on Taiwan’s status, it explores important differences in each allies’ willingness to deepen practical engagement with Taiwan, to expand their respective alliance’s focus beyond territorial defense, and to stretch the bounds of the ally’s own potential contributions in a regional contingency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes in the US-Japan alliance are taking place in times of a global power shift – a transition from unipolarity to multipolarity – and China's challenge to the US' security dominance in the Asia-Pacific. The alliance security dilemma now manifests itself in the rise of 'entrapment' concerns for Washington and 'abandonment' anxieties for Tokyo. The US increasingly insists on more mutuality in alliance arrangements, while seeking to maintain ambiguity in its defence commitments to Japan. The relative decline of US power and the fluid regional security architecture, however, incentivise Japan to step up preparations for abandonment. Although Tokyo's hedging strategy contributes to enhancement of the bilateral alliance in the short term, it also paves the way for Japan's pursuit of strategic autonomy in the medium to long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Pacific Historical Review, "Making the Pacific, Making Japanese-U.S. Relations: Science and Technology as Historical Agents in the Twentieth Century," is guest edited by Martin Collins and Teasel Muir-Harmony. The special issue gives prominence to science and technology as sources of agency inextricably bound to the modern project--and thus bound to another expression of the modern, the nation state and its interrelation with other states. In the modern context, scientific and technical knowledge, practices, and things are fundamental to composing more robust historical accounts, including accounts of the nation state. This interpretive frame is vital in understanding the Japan-U.S. relationship in the twentieth century and the critical role of the Pacific Ocean therein. The special issue includes a preface from Marc S. Rodriguez, this introduction by Martin Collins, and articles by Daqing Yang on wireless telegraphy, Chihyung Jeon on postwar trans-Pacific air flight, Teasel Muir-Harmony on the U.S. spaceflight display at the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, and Colin Garvey on the international race to develop artificial intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A moon rock, resting on a pedestal in the American Pavilion at the 1970 Osaka World Exposition, became the latest trophy for the United States in its fierce space race with the Soviet Union. The exhibit was part of a broader approach to U.S. diplomacy in this period, where science and technology, or in this case a scientific specimen, were deployed to spread Western democratic values, win over international public opinion, and counter anti- American sentiment. But the moon rock's physical resemblance to earth rocks prompted a broader discussion among Japanese audiences at the Expo about the aims of U.S. scientific and technological progress, and the practicality and applicability of American cultural norms to Japanese visions of modernity. By considering what happens when a scientific specimen travels outside of the laboratory context, outside the world of scientists, and into the world of foreign relations, this article investigates the complicated dynamics of science, material culture, and power during this critical juncture in the United States' engagement with Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, there has been a great deal of debate about whether the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Soviet Union's entrance into World War II against Japan was a more decisive factor in bringing about a Japanese surrender. This debate often has focused on the days between the bombing of Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and the Soviet declaration of war (first learned in Japan on 9 August 1945) and whether there is convincing evidence of Tokyo moving toward surrender during this time period. To date, this debate in general has not touched on the Japanese Foreign Ministry's order to destroy its documents, though it issued the directive on 7 August 1945. This research note assesses the importance of this document, concluding that its contents suggest that the atomic bombing prompted Japan's Foreign Ministry to take concrete actions anticipating an end to Japanese belligerence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article poses the question of why, after having consistently pursued an isolationist strategy of avoiding security ties with partners other than the US, and having followed the US in opposing regional security multilateralism, did Japan suddenly reverse course and get out in front of the US with its first post-war regional security initiative. This article addresses this question by tracing the internal debates, policy process and motivations that drove Japan to reverse its position, a process that transformed Japan into the leading champion of regional security multilateralism in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores which factors influenced the process of US-Japan negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It argues that while pressures from major societal groups and legislative members hampered progress of bilateral negotiations, state leaders' preferences for reacting strategically to geo political and geo-economic developments played a catalytic role in propelling the negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To an observer, Japan’s approach to nuclear weapons can appear confused and contradictory. The only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons is variously described as a pacifist and non-nuclear nation and as a proliferation threat. These widely varied and conflicting conclusions are understandable given that conflicting messages are sent by senior figures. However Japan’s stance is in fact a coherent, if not uncomplicated, response both to its security needs and to domestic public opinion. However, the security provided by US extended nuclear deterrence underlines and enables this approach. The key policies and decisions were taken in both Washington and Tokyo between China’s first nuclear test (1964) and Japan’s ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (1976). How the United States came to offer this additional security guarantee to Japan and how Japan came to rely upon it underscore this complex stance and are crucial to understanding a longstanding and ongoing security arrangement and source of stability and security in northeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reconstruction of a society through foreign intervention has been a topical issue during recent years mainly because of the events that have taken place in Afghanistan and Iraq. These countries are facing an extrinsic pressure to undergo a series of social, political and economic reforms. While the prevailing interest is derived from ongoing occupations, notable attention has also been paid to corresponding experiences of the past. This has especially placed the Allied occupation of Japan under the spotlight. Despite the unique internal and external characteristics of the process that took place in Japan from 1945 to 1952, the political reconstruction of Japan can be utilized as a frame of reference against which the lessons drawn from the recent democratization processes can be reflected. This not only reveals the challenges and possibilities of the political reconstruction processes aiming at democracy, but also leads to the question as to whether the process of democratization can ever meet the demands of democracy if it is enforced by foreign occupiers. The experiences in Japan suggest that the utilization of nondemocratic practices and the period of pseudo-democracy do not rule out the possibility of the emergence of a genuine democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper deals with the new (2013) Japan's National Security Strategy and its relationship with the actual changes in the regional and global strategic landscape. The connections between the new Japanese perspectives on the subject and the recent U.S decision to focus its military Power in the Asia Pacific region will be specially stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past two decades, the enthusiastic global reception of Japanese cultural exports has drawn wide academic attention. In the case of Japanese animation ("anime"), its penetration into the United States, the world's biggest media market, has been described as owing greatly to the crucial role of fans as cultural agents, the deterritorializing effects of globalization, the domestication and heavy editing of anime to suit local tastes, and being part of the wider global flow of Japanese pop culture and "soft power." Drawing on interviews with Japanese and American key personnel in the anime industry, field research and market surveys, this paper focuses on the organizational aspect of the anime market in the United States since the mid-1990s, with particular attention to the role of entrepreneurs, who are imperative for bridging organizational rigidities and cultural differences in global markets. The key argument presented is that entrepreneurship is a central feature in the process of transnational penetration, distribution, reproduction and consumption of cultural commodities and genres, which produce ever more complex and disjunctive economic, cultural and political orders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Japan has been increasing tensions with China regarding the Pinnacle Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Due to the Chinese military development, Japan has been working on its political and military strengthening in Asia. This essay presents two possible scenarios for Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on a relatively unexplored component of Japan's security architecture: the national security secrecy system. Among the protection measures underpinning this system, particular attention is paid to the legal aspects. This system has been caught between two competing pressures. On the one hand, the United States and domestic conservative forces have consistently sought to strengthen what they consider to be an unsatisfactory system of safeguarding national security secrets in Japan. On the other hand, left-leaning political actors, the media and public opinion, informed by the norm of antimilitarism—understood as a deep distrust of Japan's military establishment and opposition to its foreign deployment, arid also broadly predicated on fear of democratic retreat—have been able to thwart these attempts. As a result, Japan lacks a specific anti-espionage or state secrets law and has earned the reputation of a "spy heaven" where foreign agents, domestic collaborators and information leakers have been able to act with seeming impunity. However, over the past decade, rising bilateralism in the security and intelligence fields, under which Japan acts to consolidate alliance relations with its superpower patron, facilitated by the rise of regional security threats and a shift in the domestic political terrain, have contributed to an incremental erosion of the antimilitaristic constraints on the legal component of Japan's security secrecy system. Japanese governments have moved to bolster the secrecy protection regime, although reforms are not as significant as what they would be absent residual antimilitarism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on China's attempts to institutionalize its influence in Asia while Japan attempts to create foreign policy that promotes its own interests and balances its relationships with the U.S. and China. Japan's foreign policy challenges are noted including its deep governmental debt, its aging population, and its loss to China as the world's number two economy. It is noted how Japan has enacted policies promoting China economically as a way of touting Asia as an emerging global power while continuing to promote a strong alliance with the U.S. for security purposes.

In the second part of this article, we analyze the United States' Pacific strategy and the development of the situation in China and Japan, including these nations' relations with the Korean government. Attention is given to Russia's future role in Northeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a conceptual model for studying the antecedents and consequences of achieved and optimal levels of manufacturer-distributor (M-D) cooperation. We hypothesized that levels of market turbulence, competitive intensity, and the manufacturing firm's strategic type (i.e., prospector, analyzer, or defender) affected the optimal level of M-D cooperation. We also hypothesized that the level of under- and overachieving the optimal levels of cooperation negatively affects firm performance. The conceptual model is tested using empirical data collected from 295 manufacturing firms in the U.S. and validated using data collected from 104 distributors in the U.S. We also collect data from 255 Japanese manufacturing firms and 98 Japanese distributors. The empirical results support the model's hypotheses with only one unexpected finding: in the Japanese sample, overachieving the optimal level of cooperation has a greater negative effect on performance than underachieving. We conclude by discussing theoretical and managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]