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The PT-109 story is a mainstay of popular and academic narratives. Scholars tell the sinking of John F. Kennedy's patrol torpedo (PT) boat as a U.S. story, focusing on Kennedy's heroism, his incompetence, and how it launched his public career. This article, however, reveals the PT-109 story as co-constructed in Japan and the United States. Kennedy went to Japan in 1951 to craft a narrative of forgiveness and friendship that would help his political career. His visit led to a remarkable letter exchange with the captain of the destroyer that sunk his boat, Hanami Kōhei. These letters, and Hanami's exaggerations to his story in the following decade, courted a controversy about the remembrance of the past that influences how the incident is viewed today. The war story—constructed on both sides of the Pacific—in turn affirmed and strengthened the narratives of "forgiveness" and "friendship" that defined the postwar U.S.-Japan partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The war in Ukraine has manifested the critical importance of the American alliance network and the swift and effective deployment of necessary military assets. But do citizens of the U.S. allies support the deployment of such advanced, thus controversial, military assets in their countries? To examine this question, we administered two conjoint experiments in Japan, a critical U.S. ally in Asia. The results show the Japanese citizens' strong Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) sentiment: They value the U.S.-Japan alliance per se but do not want those advanced arms (specifically, Osprey and F-35 fighter jets) to be deployed in their vicinity, particularly when the U.S. military operates them. Our study contributes to the literature on alliance politics and civil-military relations by emphasizing the importance of paying close attention to local public opposition as a potential source of instability in global military alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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 article discusses Edwin O. Reischauer's role in the scholarly debates on the modern history of Japan during his ambassadorship from 1961 to 1966. It challenges Takeshi Matsuda's recent interpretation in his Soft Power, and Its Perils: U.S. Cultural Policy in Early Postwar Japan and Permanent Dependency that the "Reischauer Offensive" aimed to make Japan feel subservient, creating "a psychology of dependence." The article argues instead that Reischauer's efforts for "equal partnership" and his scholarly challenge to Marxists' interpretation brought a culture of open debate in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses gastronomy—food, cuisine, manners, setting, and material culture—in an analysis of how US–Japan relations have evolved with the changing role of Japan and Japanese cuisine in the world. Since Japan's contact with Commodore Perry's black ships in 1854, the importance of diplomatic dining, which involved learning what and how to eat, was clear. Diplomatic meals are a setting where ritual and protocol are used to homogenize the participants while affirming hierarchies among them. Any deviation from protocol is consequential, but wholly unpredictable. Deviations can be understood only within the history of previous interactions, contemporary connections, and hopes for future relations. The analysis will focus on three memorable meals between economic powerhouses, security partners, former foes, and long-time allies—Japan and the United States—in 1992, 2002, and 2014. Changes in Japan's role in global politics, the popularity of Japanese cuisine, the Japanese pop-culture boom worldwide, as well as the dispositions of their US counterparts, provided opportunities to deviate from the protocol of formal diplomatic meals. These deviations reflect and reconstitute the ever-evolving US–Japan relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chris Suh's book, "The Allure of Empire," explores the complex history of the United States, Japan, and Korea in the early 20th century. Suh challenges the traditional narratives of white empires in Asia and white-only immigration policies by highlighting the complexities of Japanese, Korean, and Philippine interactions over empire and migration. The book examines the formation of the U.S. and Japanese empires, the intersection of U.S. relations with the Japanese empire and anti-Japanese movements at home, and the creation and breakdown of inter-empire cooperation between the United States and Japan. Suh's work sheds light on the interconnectedness of immigration policy and foreign policy in Asia and offers new insights into the Korean experience of colonization and its impact on U.S.-Japanese relations. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines the U.S.-Japanese relationship and the challenges it posed to the United States in Southeast Asia during the 1970s. The United States pursued a contradictory foreign policy approach toward Japan, simultaneously trying to collaborate and compete with its ally. While the United States wanted Japan to play an active role in Southeast Asia, it also feared Japan's economic expansion and its impact on U.S. competitiveness in the region. The article highlights the inconsistencies in the U.S.-Japanese relationship and the United States' efforts to maintain regional influence as ASEAN developed closer ties with China and Japan. The United States sought to counter Japan's growing economic dominance in Southeast Asia and ensure that ASEAN's actions did not threaten U.S. regional power. The article also explores the U.S.-Japanese economic rivalry and Japan's role in Southeast Asia, focusing on trade disputes and the normalization of relations with China. The United States pursued a contradictory approach, encouraging Japan's involvement in Southeast Asia while also trying to contain its economic power. The article concludes that the United States could not reconcile its conflicting objectives, resulting in an inconsistent foreign policy toward Japan that alternated between cooperation and economic tension. [Extracted from the article]

Informed by the concept of plausible deniability and newly-declassified U.S. and Japanese documents, this study explores the interconnectedness between public and private security assurances made during the 1957-1960 revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. The role of secret agreements is conceptualized as a form of covert operations in U.S.-Japan allied secret diplomacy. The revised security treaty and joint communiques announced by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi were reinforced by secret agreements. Dual confidential arrangements enabled the transit of nuclear-armed U.S. vessels and warplanes into Japanese territorial waters and airspace, along with the free-use of U.S. bases in Japan for Korean contingencies. The U.S. employed overt and covert mechanisms to preserve its extended deterrent capabilities in East Asia as well as to meet Congressional and military requirements to preserve U.S. base rights in Japan. Japanese officials utilized covert strategies, including concealing the existence of secret agreements, thereby denying alleged public deception and ensuring their political survival for decades. In essence, secret agreements lay at the heart of the U.S.-Japan asymmetric alliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Norman Cousins, known for his critical commentary on Cold War-era politics as the editor of the Saturday Review, was not only a journalist and activist but also an important citizen diplomat. Despite his critical writings, Cousins was respected by powerful individuals on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Allen Pietrobon's biography, "Norman Cousins: Peacemaker in the Atomic Age," explores Cousins's career and argues that he played a significant role in the diplomatic history of the early Cold War. The book highlights Cousins's international humanitarian efforts and their political and diplomatic impact. While the biography does not extensively analyze Cousins's writings or engage with historiographical conversations, it provides valuable insight into his career and the connections between social criticism, humanitarianism, and geopolitical pressure. [Extracted from the article]

Japan’s government argues that its 2022 three national security documents are at the same time transformational and yet maintain overall continuity in military and security policy. This article through investigating pivotal aspects of the defense reforms—perceived threats and strategy, defense budgets, counterstrike doctrine and capabilities, first island chain defense, and domestic policy and public resolve for implementation—weighs the strength of arguments for essential continuity versus step change. It concludes that the three documents fundamentally change Japan’s exclusively defense-oriented policy and the division of labor in the U.S.-Japan alliance, further accelerate Japan’s radical military trajectory, and pose important implications for regional security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the Japanese-American alliance and its implications for multilateral cooperation in East Asia through neorealist and neoliberalist perspectives. For neorealists, the US-Japan alliance serves as a mechanism for maintaining regional stability by deterring potential aggressors, particularly in the face of growing Chinese influence and the North Korean threat. It is a manifestation of power politics, as it strengthens the security capabilities of both nations, indirectly influencing the balance of power in East Asia. However, neorealism highlights the potential for alliance dynamics to create security dilemmas, potentially exacerbating tensions in the region. Neoliberals in return underscores the alliance’s capacity to promote multilateral cooperation in East Asia. In addition to provide a stable security environment, it serves as a foundation upon which broader regional security setup and cooperative initiatives can be built, fostering trust and collaboration among regional states. This setup will be neoliberalist in shape but neorealist in essence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to analyze the art and research project BeHere/1942 (2022) by the Japanese media artist Masaki Fujihata. The collectively created intermedia system, which enables viewer participation, refers to a forgotten series of propaganda photographs documenting the internment of West-Coast Americans of Japanese descent in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. BeHere/1942 employs creative strategies developed by Fujihata, who is an acclaimed pioneer of the use of augmented reality technology in media art. The project also constitutes a daring form of critique of the dominant media narrative about the historical event. The article examines the forms of experience in which the creators of BeHere/1942 enmesh the viewers. Particular attention is paid to interactivity, a new understanding of historical photography, and the act of photographing as a performance of power.

The paper discusses the recent rise of the Japanese "free and open Indo-Pacific" strategy of alliances and partnerships between Asia and the West in the context of Turkey's current debate over its membership in the Western alliance of NATO versus the new Eurasianist turn toward Russia and China. The particular geographic focus of the paper is from Istanbul "between Europe and Asia," looking at Japan's "free and open Indo-Pacific" strategy from a historian's perspective by making an analogy with Japan's prewar foreign policy and global strategy with Britain. The paper argues that the Russian aggression that erupted with the Ukrainian crisis has been quickening the visibility of this emerging grand strategy of Japan, which has been in the making for some time. But the future of the global order is still unclear in view of the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russian and Chinese challenges to the international system. The situation also negatively impacts the global relations of the United States with regional powers, relations that were formed during the Cold War. Japan has more than a century of friendly relations with Turkey, a relationship that is still carried out in an Asianist discourse of shared cultural values, mutual help in times of dire crisis, and Turkish admiration for Japan's modernity that has retained tradition. The question is whether, in this fluid global situation, this historically friendly context can help Japan be a "pivot" for Turkey in taking steps toward a proactive free and open Indo-Pacific partnership. The prospect might have political implications for Turkey's future in the making of a new global order by offering an incentive for staying on the Western front. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The treaty that the Ryukyu Kingdom signed with the US government in 1854 was crucial for understanding cooperation between the US and Japanese governments when the latter annexed the Ryuku Islands in 1879 (an episode known as the Ryukyu shobun). The article explores how Japan-US negotiations over treaty rights facilitated Japan's ambitions in the Ryukyus, Ogasawara Islands, and Korea, as well as their confrontation when the US annexed the Kingdom of Hawai'i. By the early twentieth century, these two powers had mutually accepted each other's territorial acquisitions and, in so doing, built their own empires and brought stability to East Asia and the Pacific. Reviewing the informal agreement between Japan and the US during the annexation of the Ryukyus, we can better appreciate how the first shobun set the stage for later events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the jet age enabled the massification of international travel. U.S. airlines, faced with overcapacity, sought to inaugurate the Pacific routes, especially those between the mainland U.S. and Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i represents a symbolic intersection with militarism and tourism in the Pacific. “Militourism” is a phenomenon that the military as securing tourism operations and the tourism industry as masking the violence of military including usurpation and destruction against indigenous peoples. This essay analyzes the jet age militourism in Hawai‘i and Okinawa during the Vietnam War. Both archipelagos were positioned as the Rest and Recreation (R&R) sites for the service personnel as well as military bases for the U.S. armed forces. This paper aims to clarify how the U.S.-Japan alliance and the rivalry for trade and commerce of the two countries were involved in militourism in Hawai‘i and Okinawa, while examining the development of civil aviation commerce in the Pacific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not only do they concern themselves with personal and institutional factors that influenced Nixon's arms control agenda policies, but they also make a welcome effort to encompass the entirety of arms control. Over the years, countless undergraduate students in survey courses and special subjects have been lectured about U.S. President Richard Nixon's May 1972 visit to Moscow, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty's (ABMT) signing, and the agreement that concluded the first round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). After setting the context of Nixon's arms control inheritance and his overall arms control and national security agendas, the book dives first into the world of biological and chemical weapons control (B/CWC). [Extracted from the article]

In 2010, they created the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus), which included ministers from ASEAN as well as China, the United States and six other countries. 20 Singapore Ministry of Defence, "ASEAN and China Successfully Conclude ASEAN-China Maritime Exercise", October 27, 2018, https://www.mindef.gov.sg/web/portal/mindef/news-and-events/latest-releases/article-detail/2018/october/27oct18%5fnr; Commander U.S. 7 SP th sp Fleet, "First ASEAN-US Maritime Exercise Successfully Concludes", September 6, 2019, https://www.c7f.navy.mil/Media/News/Display/Article/1954403/first-asean-us-maritime-exercise-successfully-concludes/. Second, ASEAN has pursued these exercises through a forum that includes China and Russia as well as the United States, Japan and India. In the security arena, ASEAN established an annual forum known as the East Asia Summit - which hosts presidents and prime ministers from Southeast Asia as well the United States, China, Russia and other great powers - to discuss regional security issues. [Extracted from the article]

The article investigates the representation of the U.S.-Japan alliance in manga. It discusses the importance of manga as 21st century educational discourse in the context of U.S. popular culture and the origins of the U.S.-Japan alliance. It examines the significance of the alliance in the graphic discourse "Barefot Gen," which provides historical context on the U.S.-Japan relation within the global movement of disarmament and denuclearization and representation of trauma and memory politics.

No first use (NFU) of nuclear weapons is said to be an effective declaratory policy for advancing nuclear disarmament. In Japan, which suffered two atomic bombings, there are many voices that expect the US to declare the NFU, hoping to promote nuclear disarmament. In the meantime, Japan faces a tough security environment with North Korea's growing nuclear and missile capabilities and, above all, China's more assertive actions along with the expansion of both nuclear and conventional forces. The Japanese strategic community thinks that it is essential to maintain the credibility of the US extended deterrence and to further develop strike capabilities to counter China's medium-range strike capabilities in the region. In this context, there is a concern that a possible US declaration of NFU, while it may reduce the nuclear risk between the US and China, may signal to China that the US would allow China's assertive activities at the regional level. Measures must be taken to dispel concerns about such regional instability, and stakeholders should pursue stability at both strategic and regional levels so that declaratory policies such as NFU can effectively contribute to reducing nuclear threats and risks. To this end, it would be beneficial to discuss arms control and build confidence through a multi-layered strategic and arms control dialogues among primary players, namely one between the US and China, one among the US, Japan, and China, and another that add other regional players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of "Strategic Culture" has enjoyed a resurgence in the last two decades as a method for understanding the behavior and decision making of potential adversaries. Strategic culture assessment methodologies offer a way to examine the policy choices of states, while accounting for ethnocentric biases. While these assessments have been used widely for analyzing adversaries, they are underutilized in assessing allies. The emergence of great power competition between the U.S. and China will increase pressure on the U.S.-Japan alliance. Increasing the understanding of Japan's strategic culture will provide the United States insight into ways to engage with Japan to make strategies to compete with China more effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to improve the prediction accuracy of the exchange rate model by changing how indices that capture market sentiment are constructed. We construct the sentiment indices (SIs) for the Japanese and American markets using the Google search volume index (SVI) for financial terms listed in the Japanese dictionary. For these SVIs, we select keywords based on the correlation between weekly changes in the yen–dollar rate and the SVI. We use 30, 20, and 10 keywords that are replaced at three different frequencies: 3 months, 6 weeks, and weekly. The training period is from January 2013 to June 2015, and the forecast period is from July 2015 to December 2017. We perform a rolling regression, which keeps the length of the reference period constant at 2 and a half years, based on the interest rate parity and autoregressive models for the predictions. We compare the prediction accuracy using the mean squared prediction error, Clark and West's tests of equal predictive accuracy, and the direction of change test. When the SIs are updated every 3 months and 6 weeks, neither the interest rate parity model nor the autoregressive model shows improved prediction accuracy, even if the SI is added. However, when the SIs are updated weekly, prediction accuracy improves in both the interest rate parity and the autoregressive models as the number of words used to construct the SI increases. We conclude that frequently updated SIs can improve the short‐term prediction accuracy, while SIs updated less frequently may not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the life and afterlives of Okei, a political refugee from the Japanese Boshin Civil War (1868–69), who became the first Japanese woman interred in North American soil. Looking at a shared space of commemoration, in this case a grave site in California, this paper tracks how Okei's memorialization on both sides of the Pacific constructed specific communal identities over a hundred and fifty years. Okei's legacy has been consciously constructed by different actors to at once prove the resiliency of the Japanese spirit, provide an origin story for Japanese America, glorify Japanese expansionism, promote U.S.–Japanese friendship, establish regional prestige, and embody internationalism. Despite these multivocal trans-Pacific interpretations, all renderings of Okei's story share one key similarity: the manipulation of history to empty Okei's life of its divisive political context. A history replaced by multiple myths, the Okei narrative came to express contrasting yet parallel identities grounded in that lonely hill in California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, records have been published from the internal discussions in the Carter administration (1977-80) on the feasibility of convincing Japan to halt its plutonium-separation program as the United States was in the process of doing domestically. Japan was deeply committed to its program, however, and President Carter was not willing to escalate to a point where the alliance relationship could be threatened. Forty years later, the economic, environmental, and nonproliferation arguments against Japan's program have only been strengthened while Japan's concern about being dependent on imports of uranium appears vastly overblown. Nevertheless, Japan's example, as the only non-weapon state that still separates plutonium, continues to legitimize the launch of similar programs in other countries, some of which may be interested in obtaining a nuclear weapon option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After spending more than 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) on its Monju prototype fast-neutron breeder reactor, Japan’s government finally decided in December 2016 to decommission it entirely. Even though the facility had operated only 250 days during its 22-year existence, government ministers still declared that the official policy of developing a fast reactor “has not changed at all” – and even announced a plan to draw up a “strategic roadmap” for fast-reactor development by 2018. The current idea is for Japan to join, as a junior partner, with the French program to design and build a fast reactor called the Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration on French soil. Just as important, Japan’s government also declared that it would continue its reprocessing policy. This means that there has been no change in the plan to start up the commercial operation of its Rokkasho reprocessing plant – the first industrial-scale reprocessing plant in a non-nuclear weapons state – in 2018. The plant is designed to separate up to 8 tons of plutonium, enough to make 1000 bombs, per year. (And Japan has already accumulated 48 tons of separated plutonium.) This is a long way from the original purpose of civilian reprocessing – to supply plutonium for the start-up cores of fast breeder reactors, which were touted as ways to produce more plutonium than the amount they consume as fuel, thereby achieving a near-eternal source of energy. What does the closing of this one reactor, the continuation of Japan’s research into fast reactors, and the continuation of reprocessing spent fuel mean for the Far East Asia region, the United States, and the rest of the world? Isn’t Japan’s government simply unwilling to admit that its dream of an endless plutonium-fueled future has turned into a costly nightmare? These are legitimate questions for the international community to ask. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous studies have demonstrated cross‐cultural differences in the levels of self‐rated health (SRH), an individual's overall perception of their health, and that Korea and Japan tend to show relatively poor SRH despite higher life expectancy compared to countries like the United States. While it has been suggested that response styles and macro‐level cultural values contribute to such differences, there is limited research on what other factors might be. The present study focused on influence and adjustment strategies as a potential cultural factor that could partly explain the cultural differences in SRH. Results from structural equation modeling have shown that Americans reported greater influence and positive reappraisal, plus a lower adjustment of goals than Japanese individuals, which partially explained the higher SRH among Americans than in the Japanese. These patterns were found even when a more objective measure of health (i.e., chronic conditions) was controlled for. Together, the findings highlight the role of influence and adjustment in understanding cultural differences in SRH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author discusses manga, nationhood and otaku masculinity in the Japanese shonen manga television program "My Hero Academia" (Boku no hiro akademia). Other topics include creator Horikoshi Kohei's integration of Japan's relationship with the U.S. in the show's plotline, and Joane Nagel's opinions on masculinity, militarism and nationalism.

Frederick Rutland's intelligence activities in interwar Los Angeles have been the subject of much analysis since the war. Interpretations range from the assertion of his biographer that he did essentially nothing illegal to the more recent claim that the technical information he provided to the Imperial Navy helped make the Pearl Harbor attack possible. This article uses recently declassified American documents and Japanese sources to shed new light on Rutland's activities, his role in the wider Japanese intelligence apparatus, and the nature of his mission. Contra most previous analyses, these suggest that the Japanese Navy viewed Rutland as an agent with future potential for wartime rather than one who had already provided valuable services. Those included creating close relationships with high-profile Americans to get strategic information rather than technical intelligence. They also suggest that the Japanese Navy's skewed view of Rutland prevented it from developing a more effective prewar intelligence network, with dire consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Consumer animosity toward a foreign country can affect negatively international brands. Existing international marketing research offers inconsistent accounts of the factors that explain product quality perceptions, negative word of mouth (NWOM) and product avoidance in animosity contexts. This paper aims to demonstrate that such inconsistency is caused by the fact that different explanations apply to different consumer subgroups. Searching for a single solution, thus, leads to erroneous predictions for sizable subgroups of consumers. Design/methodology/approach: The study implements a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to two quantitative surveys examining Chinese consumers' (n = 476) reactions to Japanese products and American consumers' (n = 517) reactions to Chinese products. Findings: The analysis yields novel explanations of the outcomes of animosity. Only in some causal configurations reduced quality evaluations explain product avoidance and NWOM, while in others negative behaviors co-exist with positive quality perceptions. Moreover, negative emotions' role varies across forms of animosity. While anger is often associated with the behavioral outcomes of animosity, fear plays an important role in only a few specific combinations. Research limitations/implications: General models of animosity need to be complemented with accounts that examine the multiple mechanisms underpinning animosity outcomes. Practical implications: Marketers should identify which animosity model applies to their consumer segment(s) as different mechanisms require different marketing approaches. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study recognizing that the same animosity outcomes are explained by multiple mechanisms offering a more nuanced picture of the motivations associated with consumer animosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021 Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait have made it back into US-Japan joint statements. Tokyo and Washington have talked (more or less) openly and on the record about what to do jointly in the worst-case scenario: a US-Chinese conflict over Taiwan. The quality and scope of Japanese contributions to US-led military operations in a Taiwan/Taiwan Strait crisis scenario depend on the circumstances and the crisis scenario. The devil would be very much in the details. However, China is very unlikely to attack or invade Taiwan (any time soon) even though Tokyo and Washington - together with other like-minded countries in the region - are preparing for various worst-case scenarios. What China calls Western containment to «suppress» China and secure US (military) hegemony in the region is in reality Tokyo and Washington jointly preparing for various worst-case scenarios in reaction to Chinese very assertive regional security policies in general and policies related to territorial claims in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay aims to address the structural barriers that deter the study of "Global Asias"—or even something smaller in scale, the study of the "Pacific"—in the context of the institutional split between Asian studies and Asian American studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I will first identify how Japanese trade policymaking differs in the case of the U.S.-Japan bilateral deal compared to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through the framework of realist versus liberal international relations paradigms. I will then explore why Japan executed a different approach toward the U.S.-Japan deal due to four major contextual factors: (1) the structural differences between multilateralism and bilateralism, (2) the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration, (3) Japanese domestic influences, and (4) international affairs. The purpose of this analysis will be to identify the conditions that will prompt Japanese policymakers to re-adopt a strategic trade approach, given the overall transition toward more adaptive and integrative trade policy. I will conclude by detecting an overarching pattern in Japanese foreign trade policymaking: When Japan has the opportunity to pursue trade policy that is integrative and open-oriented, it will do so, unless it will jeopardize Japan's geopolitical advantage, in which case a resurgence of the former strategic trade approach will occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]