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published_or_final_version / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Japan has maintained a low profile in its diplomacy since the end of World War II, relying heavily on the United States for its security and prosperity. The cold war structure allowed Japan to maintain its passive foreign policy behavior. By the end of 1980s, West-East confrontations largely ended and global issues such as arms control, environmental problem, human rights, economic development, and ethnic conflicts became the main international concerns. It was expected that in this changed world environment, Japan as an economic power, would take on a more active international role. Yet Japan has not shown any significant political initiative despite of its willingness to contribute to international peace and prosperity. The primary purpose of this thesis is to identify the underlying factors that have kept Japan from being a strong voice and taking initiatives in world affairs. This study presents Japan's official guidelines on global issues as its foreign policy. The guidelines indicate that Japanese foreign policy is too general and broad; it aims at cooperation with everybody. Japan's foreign-policy behavior is represented by its voting behavior in the United Nations General Assembly. Inasmuch as it has adopted a U.N.-centered diplomacy, I believe that Japan's voting in the U.N. delineates its foreign-policy behavior. A statistical method of factor analysis I apply in this study delineates Japan's stance and voting cohesion issue by issue. The voting maps reveal Japan's ambivalent stance on most of the issues. Japan's voting pattern often does not follow its idealistic guidelines. The study further inquires into the discrepancy between Japan's foreign policy and its foreign-policy behavior. The main reasons seem to stem from its dependent security relations with the United States, the close economic ties with Asian countries and the oil-producing Middle East states, and historical constraints in relations with Asia. In addition, Japan's ambiguous foreign policy guidelines are themselves a factor which creates the discrepancy. These factors prevent Japan from independently reacting to international incidents. Yet given its financial and technological advances, Japan could play a leading role within the framework of international organizations, especially on global environmental issues.

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Japan's foreign relations with the People's Republic of China have been one of the most important and controversial issues since Japan regained her independence in 1952. Geographical proximaty, historical ties that Japan has with China, and China being a major power with nuclear capability made it vitally important for Japan to keep a pipeline open with her, and the policy of separating economics from politics permitted trade relations with her. In this thesis I am chiefly interested in finding out why it was of utmost importance for Japan to adopt this principle of foreign policy toward Communist China. In the first section, the international situation and historical circumstances which eventually led Japan to adopt this policy will be explored. The second section will deal with the international significance and implications of this policy. In section three I should like to analyze how the actual negotiations on "trade" are used by both the Chinese leaders and the pro-Peking leaders in Japan as a means of changing Japan's policy toward China. An important aspect of this policy treated in the last section is the internal political impact in Japan. Finally, I should like to see how Korea will be affected by Japan's new relations with the People's Republic of China. The chief cause of adopting and pursuing the policy of separating economics from politics stemmed from international circumstances in which Japan found herself as a defeated nation after the Second World War. It was the nature of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the timing of the signing, the attitude of Communist China and Japan's particular relation to the United States that made Japan recognize Nationalist China. Since neither Nationalist China nor Communist China would permit diplomatic ties with any country that recognized the other, it was not possible for Japan to recognize both regimes. Therefore, Japan maintained only economic relations with Communist China without any direct political contact. Sino-Japanese trade relations were based on the reality of both Communist China and Japan. From Japan's point of view it was a realistic approach to maximize economic opportunities and minimize political involvement until the right opportunity came for normalization. By adopting and practising the policy of separating economics from politics, Japan looked for larger commercial opportunities in the future and it also served as a pipeline between the two big countries in Asia. From China's viewpoint, it was an "accumulative" approach for the eventual normalization of relations with Japan. Trade was used as an instrument of political pressure and it reflected China's political aims. The volume of trade fluctuated and the techniques China used varied according to the political objectives. China appealed to a "broad political spectrum" in Japan through private agreements and exchange of unofficial private delegations. China threatened Japan with suspension of trade, and manipulated her with "friendly trade" and "memorandum trade". Since the agreement for the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations was signed on September 29, 1972 the controversial issue of "separating economics from politics" has become a story of the past. The admission of Communist China to the United Nations in 1971, Nixon's visit to China in February, 1972, and the eventual change of the policy of the United Nations gave Japan an opportunity to change her policy and recognize the People's Republic of China. With the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations, Korea must seek her role by pursuing "independent and positive" action. The talks between North and South for the eventual unification of Korea and the new constitution of South Korea which was adopted in 1972 reflect Korea's attempts to adjust herself to this role. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Honours) at Macquarie University. / Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University (Division of Humanities, Dept. of Asian Languages), 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 137-160. / Introduction -- Anglo-Japanese relations and World War One -- Fear of Japan in Australia -- William Morris Hughes -- Japan's proposal and diplomacy at Paris -- Reasons for rejection : a discussion -- Conclusion. / Japan as an ally of Britain, since the signing of Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, entered World War One at British request. During the Great War Japan fought Germany in Asia and afforded protection to Australia. After the conclusion of the War, a peace conference was held at Paris in 1919. As a victorious ally and as one of the Five Great Powers of the day, Japan participated at the Paris Peace Conference, and proposed racial equality to be enshrined in the Covenant of the League of Nations. This Racial Equality Bill, despite the tireless efforts of the Japanese delegates who engaged the representatives of other countries in intense diplomatic negotiations, was rejected. The rejection, a debatable issue ever since, has inspired many explanations including the theory that it was a deliberate Japanese ploy to achieve other goals in the agenda. This thesis has researched the reasons for rejection and contends that the rejection was not due to any one particular reason. Four key factors: a) resolute opposition from Australian Prime Minister Hughes determined to protect White Australia Policy, b) lack of British support, c) lack of US support, and d) lack of support from the British dominions of New Zealand, Canada and South Africa; converged to defeat the Japanese proposal. Japanese inexperience in international diplomacy evident from strategic and tactical mistakes, their weak presentations and communications, and enormous delays in negotiations, at Paris, undermined Japan's position at the conference, but the reasons for rejection of the racial equality proposal were extrinsic. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xii, 188 leaves