Japanese Vision of International Society: A Historical Exploration.

This paper purports to give a positive answer to the "Japanese IR Question", by analyzing some notable academic attempts arguing the concept of international society. Particular attention is paid to works between 1920s and 1940s, and the paper focuses on IR scholars, political theorists, and international lawyers.During this period, Japan was in a very peculiar place. While the country had accomplished the status of a major power in post WWI world, Japan had also struggled to identify the appropriate position between the European world of the colonizers and the world of the colonized. Thus clarifying the meaning of international society was an important part of academic activities for the country's scholars concerning international relations. In the paper, the author classifies major studies on international society into four groups or "views", namely (1) the Idealists; (2) the Kelsenians; (3) the Cosmopolitans; and (4) the Greater-Asians.The problem with these groups is that all four views were influenced by foreign theory and remained imported knowledge. However, Japanese vision of international society as a whole has one distinctive character which other countries' studies do not have. The paper points out that there are three types of arguments in the country's vision on international society, and argues that it is the third type of argument on autonomy which makes the vision of international society as "Japanese IR". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]