Внешнеполитические приоритеты Японии в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе

Внешнеполитические приоритеты Японии в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе

Streltsov Dmitry

Foreign Policy Priorities of Japan in the Asia-Pacific Region

Москва, 2015, 279 p.

The monograph is devoted to those areas of Japan policy in the Asia-Pacific region that Tokyo gives most importance. Japan’s relations with her Asian neighbors were extremely complicated and tense. The political climate of bilateral relations was negatively affected by the unsolved problem of Senkaku/Diaoyudao. A serious diplomatic problem for Japan was caused by her territorial conflicts with neighbors rooted in the legacy of the Second World War. The current state of these conflicts, which in most cases has a deep historical background, is addressed in this book. A large part of Japan’s relations with China and South Korea is related to the outstanding historical issues of the Second World War. Many of these problems, unlikely to be sold in the immediate future, have in recent years caused a significant deterioration of the political climate in Japan’s relations with her neighbors and even a freeze of high level political dialogue. A significant impact on Japan’s policy in the Asia-Pacific region is provided by domestic political considerations. Of great significance is the growth of populism in politics, forcing the state administration to make such decisions – including those in the sphere of foreign policy – as do not necessarily correspond to the national interests and address primarily the nationalist feelings of the electorate. A special research issue tackled in the book deals with the institutional foundations of Japanese diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region, namely the characteristic features of foreign policy decision-making process in postwar Japan and the place and role of each policy-making institution in the formulation and implementation of Japan’s foreign policy priorities in the Asia-Pacific region. For Japan, the enforcement of internal factors in the foreign policy decision-making process was also facilitated by the fact that the very notion of national interests had been shaped in the context of domestic needs, especially the need for economic growth and integrated national security. The book also pays special attention to Japan’s participation in the processes of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region over the past two decades, which has become an imperative for Japan. The book explores the problem of Japan’s accession to the Transpacific Partnership and other multilateral economic integration mechanisms. A serious academic problem lies in Tokyo’s policy towards major international political formats of the Asia-Pacific region, and first of all the APEC. In addition, the book addresses the issue of the ODA, namely, how Japan uses the tools of development assistance to defend her own economic and political interests in the Asia-Pacific region. A special place in the foreign policy priorities of postwar Japan in the Asia-Pacific region was held by her relations with Russia. This is due to the fact that, after the end of the cold war, relations with Russia have acquired a particular importance for Japan’s national interests in the context of the relative weakening of her regional and global role, as well as due to the aggravation of the problem of energy resources, as Russia started to assume the role of key energy supplier to Japan.