International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Advance Access originally published online on September 2, 2008
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 2009 9(2):317-338; doi:10.1093/irap/lcn015
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Investigating Japanese government's perceptions of the postwar world as revealed in prime ministers' Diet addresses: focussing on East-West and North-South issues
Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Email: qq16116{at}iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp
This study applies content analysis to Japanese prime ministers' Diet addresses in order to examine the Japanese government's perception of the world after World War II. Since the end of the Cold War, many scholars have revealed more strategic and proactive aspects of Japanese foreign policy by investigating broader issues or longer time periods. Methodologically, these studies as well as conventional studies derive the character of Japanese foreign policy mainly from an examination of documentary sources or case studies, thus further empirical evidence can help these discussions. By investigating the long-term perception focussing on North-South issues as well as East-West issues, we show that there are aspects of Japanese foreign policy with an individual character. We conclude that this method provides empirical evidence and helps to construct a multidimensional perspective for characterizing Japanese foreign policy, and thus contributes to the recent lively discussions on this topic.
Received for publication January 21, 2008. Accepted for publication July 30, 2008.