Last Week: Structure, Agency and Norms

• International structures: the external environment in which a state and its people are enmeshed and interact (states, institutions and regional frameworks)

• Domestic agency: the leading actors and policy makers of a given era (Business/TNC leaders, bureaucracy and ruling party and Prime Minister’s office)

• Dominant norms: Bilateralism (international), antimilitarism, developmentalism, economism (domestic)

Unit 4 Japan’s Political

Relations with The United States

Prof. Glenn D Hook

Aim • To apply the concepts and theoretical approach

introduced to Japan's political relations with the

United States.

AgencyStructure

Norms

Objectives 1) To identify the relative importance of structure, agency and

norms in explaining how the strong US-Japan political relationship emerged in the Post-War and post-Cold War eras;

2) To demonstrate how structure, agency and norms can be used to explain the US-Japan political relationship in case studies such as Japan’s normalization of relations with the Soviet Union in 1956 , Japan’s reaction to the Vietnam War, normalization of relations with China in 1972 and involvement in the War on Terror;

3) To explain how the bilateral relationship with the US has been influenced by Japan’s domestic society and public opinion.

Emergence of the post-War bilateral relationship

Goals of the restructuring of the Japanese

domestic order by the U.S. (1945-52):

• Japan never again become a threat;

• To rid militarism and to foster anti-

militarism and democracy;

• To set in motion a radical transformation of

Japan under the slogans of demilitarization

and democratization.

Implementation of US goals• Democratization of Japan’s political, economic and

social systems by the U.S.:

• Revising the Meiji Constitution;

• Transfer the power from the Emperor to the people;

• Set up a bicameral house of elected political

representatives;

• Provide the voting right to all citizens aged 20 or over;

• Establish Article 9 to prevent the return of militarism.

Signatures for the 1946 constitution

Cold War and post-Cold War changes

• Cold War US-Japan political relationship: i. US government began to place greater weight on integrating Japan into the Western camp, politically, economically & militarily;

ii. Japanese leaders did not resist and pursued a pro-US policy;

iii. With the consolidation of the bipolar structure, Japan’s international relations became tightly linked to the US.

• Post-Cold War US-Japan political relationship:

i. Japan is particularly vulnerable to US pressure;

ii. Bilateralism – Japan’s prioritization of the US-

Japan relationship;

iii. This arrangement largely continues, despite

administrative change.

Japan’s Normalization of Relations with the Soviet Union in 1956

• Structure: the reduction of international tensions in the mid-1950s signalling a thaw in the East-West confrontation;

• Events: Korean War Armistice; death of the leader of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, in 1953; launch of the non-aligned movement (NAM); four powers’ agreement on the neutralization of Austria in 1954; USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin at the Twentieth Party Congress in 1956.

• Agency: Pro Japan independence: Hatoyama Ichiro (1955), other mainstream factions of the LDP & the fishing industry; Pro-US: certain segments of the domestic society, the Yoshida-led factions and the MOFA;

• Norms: Contention between the norms of anti-communism, bilateralism, and sovereignty.

Japan and the Vietnam War• Structure: bipolarity -> insufficient to explain Japan’s inability to

provide military support to the U.S.

• Agency: Pro-U.S.: Prime Minister Sato Eisaku; Opposition: Article 9 informed policy making agents; local governments and other sub-national political actors ;

• Norms: tension between the bilateralism, anti-communism, and anti-militarism norms.

Prime Minister Sato Eisaku and President Richard Nixon

Japan’s Normalization of Relations with China in 1972

Structure: From the early 1970s, the gradual weakening of the US; Doubts about the political wisdom of pursuing a uniform anti-

communist policy; Question the continuing need to isolate the Chinese communist regime; The move of the international system away from a strict ideological bipolarity; The change in the structure of the international system provided the opportunity for Sato to push forward with the

normalization of Sino-Japanese relations.

Agency: Prime minister Tanaka Kakuei elected (not Sato’s successor );

pro-China factions of the LDP; other political parties which were keen to

develop relations with China, such as the Japan Socialist Party, the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), the Japan Communist Party (JCP) and the Komei Party; big business were keen to develop business links with China, such as companies in the steel, chemical and automobile industries (Kawasaki, Sumitomo, Toyota, Nissan and Honda).

Japan’s Normalization of Relations with China in 1972 (Norms)

Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai

Japan and the “War on Terror”• Structure: Post 9/11 international environment presented as

requiring new forms of political cooperation to ensure security. Revitalized US-Japan alliance under Bush and Koizumi governments. Establishment of common political enemies.

• Agency: Koizumi, Abe, Fukuda (to a lesser extent) and Asō proactive in supporting US-led wars and operations. US support for Japan’s participation in Six Party Talks and high-level cooperation on North Korean issues, despite Japan’s anger over the US’s removal of the DPRK from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Reconciling of bilateral political interests led by MOFA, Noda, Obama and Abe:

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/01/22/u-s-central-to-abe-doctrine-in-japanese-pms-lost-policy-speech/

• Norms: Reinvigorated bilateralism

The influence of domestic society and public opinion

• Structure: Broad public support for close relations with the United States. Domestic resistance to specific US policy issues and actions (US-led wars, stationing of US troops in Japan etc.)

• Agency: Media and public opinion moving against US-led war in Iraq. Discontent raised by media, civil rights groups, local politicians and local people over US stationing of troops on Okinawa, US abuse of local citizens and relocation of bases.

• Norms: bilateralism countered by deep-rooted anti-militarism at the domestic level

Conclusion

• Japan’s behaviour within the context of the US-Japan political

relationship can be understood through the structure, agency,

and norms approach.

• Structure can impede/constrain Japan’s behaviour and can

also provide opportunities.

• Agency is important in accepting the pressures of structure,

initiating and negotiating policy. It involves a range of actors.

• Norms can constrain as well as provide opportunity for

behaviour or policy.