Keiko Hirata

Why Japan Supports Whaling

Japan is one of the few states in the world that adamantly supports whaling. For decades, Tokyo has steadfastly maintained its right to whale and has aggressively lobbied the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for a resumption of commercial whaling. Japan’s prowhaling stance has invited strong international criticism from both environmental groups and Western governments, many of which view Tokyo as obstructing international efforts to protect whales. Why has Japan adhered to a prowhaling policy that has brought the country international condemnation? Its defiant prowhaling stance is not consistent with its internationally cooperative position on other environmental matters. For example, for the past decade, Tokyo has been a key player in international environmental regimes, such as those to combat ozone depletion and global warming. If Japan is serious about environmental protection and desires to play a role as a “green contributor,” why hasn’t it embraced the antiwhaling norm, thereby joining other states in wildlife protection and assuming a larger role in global environmental leadership? It is natural to assume that such norm noncompliance would be based on materialism, that it is an attempt to maximize material self-interest. For example, domestic business groups in Japan often work closely with the state bureaucracy to shape policy in line with their interests. However, in this case,

Civil Society and Japan’s Dysfunctional Democracy

Japan has long been described as a dysfunctional democracy due to the limited role of grassroots movements compared to other industrialized countries. This paper critiques the notion of an Asian path to democracy in Japan and outlines how industrial maturation and globalization have given rise to new forms of Japanese social activism. The historical growth and development of Japan’s grassroots movements is analyzed, with a focus on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) involved in international development. The paper examines in detail the push and pull factors behind the growth and influence of these NGOs, and analyzes the new forms of state-society relations that have emerged as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NGOs begin to collaborate. Finally, the paper assesses the significance of grassroots activism for democratic invigoration in Japan and beyond.

Introduction: Constructivism, Rationalism, and the Study of Norms in Japanese Foreign Policy

As in any study on a country’s foreign policy, it is difficult to identify a single paradigm that fully captures the essence of Japanese foreign policy. The overlapping, yet somewhat conflicting paradigms of Japan as both a democratic pacifist state and an elite-guided mercantile state that were dominant during the cold war period are increasingly challenged by a paradigm of a military-realist state in the post-cold war era. Although such paradigm competition is a driving force for advancing scholarship, the lack of dialogue, a common language, and common methods across different perspectives has thus far led many scholars to talk past each other and engage only in mutually exclusive paradigm-based monologues.

Japan’s Whaling Politics

Why does Japan sometimes defy international norms, even when doing so brings international condemnation and no substantial material benefit to the country? What conditions help lead to international norm rejection? To address these questions, this chapter analyzes Japan’s whaling policy and practices, examining why Tokyo has refused to accept an international antiwhaling norm that is broadly supported in most advanced industrialized states, and the mechanisms through which the antiwhaling norm has been rejected.

Cautious Proactivism and Reluctant Reactivism: Analyzing Japan’s Foreign Policy toward Indochina

Japan’s foreign policy behavior is an enigma. On the one hand, Japan is frequently portrayed as a reactivist state. According to this view, Japan has neither the will nor the capacity to conduct an independent foreign policy despite its enormous economic strength, and thus continually adapts its diplomatic course in response to foreign pressure (gaiatsu). On the other hand, Japan is also often characterized as a proactive, aggressive benefit-maximizer or opportunist, pursuing its own interest independent of others. In this view, Japan conducts its foreign policy without regard to gaiatsu. Which is the true Japan?

Civil Society and NGOs in Japan

Japan is typically viewed as a docile society, with its people subservient to their corporations and the government. Even Makido Noda, chief program officer at the leading research institute on Japan’s grassroots organization, says, “Japan didn’t have a civil society until recently. And our civil society remains weak.”1