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This article condemns the Persian Gulf war as an example of American militarism, parallels such policies with Japan of the 1930's, and offers recommendations for Japan's place in the new world order. Viewed from Japan, America's euphoria about the war against Iraq and the so-called new world order is both ironic and a cause for deep pessimism. Japan was indisputably a naked aggressor against China, but it is questionable--more so now than ever--whether the Japanese were peculiarly war-loving, ultranationalistic, conformist, and intolerant of dissent. Part of the explanation lies in the quick-fix military ardor of contemporary America (and Britain), coupled with fear and envy of Japan's economic capabilities. At the same time, the image of the United States as a war-loving, sloganeering, extremist country (all World War II Western images of Japan) has been strengthened. Japan should establish all feasible controls on such technology, link economic assistance to arms control, and make its technology available for the surveillance and verification tasks essential to international arms control.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the modern Japanese state employed overseas cultural promotion as a way to maximise its interests and image not only in international contexts but also at home. By juxtaposing the Takarazuka Revue’s performances in the United States and Japan during the postwar period, this paper argues that the overseas promotion of this Japanese theatre troupe both depended upon and reinforced the Japanese populace’s nationalistic pride in its culture. The paper also addresses the ways in which the Japanese government used Takarazuka’s theatrical presentations as a means of pursuing its domestic and diplomatic agendas: improving Japan’s international position by proposing shared aspects of popular culture with the US and increasing its sense of nationalism by propagating cultural pride. In doing so, the paper explicates the ways in which Japanese popular cultural considerations interfaced with political concerns in the shaping of postwar Japan’s national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this essay, I analyze my border performances of becoming and being as an embodied text to explicate, elucidate, and elaborate culturally hybrid practices of intercultural transition. I pay close attention to unpack the material realities of my hybridity as I continue to live within and beyond queer (or non-heteronormative) Japan-US transnational borderland. In so doing, I aim to illustrate (dis)connections between my identity negotiation processes and the multiple significances of queer Asian/American male identity construction to disrupt the heteronormative modes of thinking about intercultural transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In March 2005, riots erupted in South Korea against Japan in reaction to Japan's claims of sovereignty over some rocky uninhabited islets (0.23 km2). What explains the moral outrage against Japan, the severity of which could have erupted into a military conflict? Such outrage is a puzzle for two reasons. First, the probability that South Korea could defeat Japan is nil, especially since the US-Japan alliance dominates the US-South Korean alliance. Second, even if the probability of defeating Japan was 100%, the net benefit of conflict was apparently negative - given the meager potential reward vis-à-vis the cost of war. This article offers a rational choice model that demonstrates that the moral outrage cannot be explained as a strategic threat. The analysis demonstrates that sociological and evolutionary game explanations are also unconvincing. This calls for an evaluation of how emotions relate to rational choice in international conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Chinese nation building in the post-Cold War era from the perspective of foreign policy. It focuses on the role of Japan and the United States as significant 'Others' in Chinese leaders' construction of three major variants of Chinese national identity: as a victim (past), as a developing country (present) and as a great power (future). The article argues that Japan occupies a primary place in the enactment of the past aspect of Chinese identity, while the US plays a major role in its present and, especially, future aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses foreign relations and security policy between Japan and the U.S. The author reflects on the economic growth and rebuilding of infrastructure of Japan following World War II. Emphasis is given to the continued reliance of Japan on the U.S. for its security and political change within Japan that questions the alliance after the Cold War. Other topics include neonationalism, a coalition government between legislators Ichiro Ozawa and Yasuo Fakuda, the nationalism of prime minister Ichiro Hatoyama, and the U.S. nuclear commitment to Japan.

In recent years, some Japanese prime ministers have exhibited a nationalistic tendency, particularly in their foreign policies. The increasing nationalistic appeal by recent leaders marks a sharp contrast with previous leaders, who were unwilling to cause friction with other countries and thus took more centrist positions. More interestingly, those recent leaders, including Koizumi Junichiro, previously adopted a more modest stance. This article seeks to explain the increase in nationalistic appeal, particularly between 2001 and 2006, among Japanese leaders by focusing on some important changes in the Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP's) presidential election procedures. Drawing on the study of US primary elections, I argue that the increase in the weight of rank-and-filers' votes vis-à-vis the LDP Diet members' votes in the LDP presidential election encouraged some candidates to take more ideologically extreme positions. In other words, much like US primaries, the LDP presidential elections can have a tendency to pull some candidates toward extreme positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines cultural change in the triad regions, Japan, the United States, and Western Europe. In doing so it attempts to respond to calls to incorporate contextual and temporal factors in the analysis of national culture and their implications for the management of international operations. A four-stage model of development is proposed, derived in dialogue with conceptualizations from anthropology and sociology and with the specialist literature on nationalism. Created by narrow elites over the 19th century, the national cultures of the triad became arenas of violent confrontation in the early twentieth century, and then fragmented into a postmodern diversity in the generation following the Second World War. These tensions reflect broader processes of development that have transformed culture, especially the global forces of rising incomes, rising educational levels, and expansion of the public sphere. In the triad regions these processes have led through a series of stages to a world where individuals choose their own culture. The model therefore predicts in broad outline the likely course of development in emerging nations. The concluding section outlines some possible directions of development and implications for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With East Asian international relations in flux since the end of the Cold War, Japan's security role is critical in influencing the region's future. In this article, the author examines Japanese opinion leaders' attitudes toward relations with Asian countries, the U.S.-Japan security alliance, the role of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, and Japan's culpability for the Fifteen-Year War of 1931-45. The four major contemporary security strands in Japan—pacifism, mercantilism, normalism, and nationalism—are analyzed. The author argues that normalism continues to rise in the post-Cold War era as the rightist conservatives (normalists) gradually gain predominance over the moderate conservatives (mercantilists). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illustrates how media representations of Suzuki Ichiro, a professional baseball player, have reproduced discourses of nationhood in Japan and the US, demonstrating how national- ism and globalization may articulate in sport. Some 365 articles that mentioned Ichiro, published in the Seattle Times (151), Mainichi Daily Newspaper (77), and Sports Nippon (137) were analyzed. These articles describe Ichiro's inaugural season (2001-02) as the first Japanese position player in Major League Baseball. Transnationalism provides an important framework for understanding the specific space between the nation and the `other.' In this instance, this space spans the US and Japan, US and Japanese baseball, and even US and Japanese media. Although Ichiro's move from Japanese baseball to Major League Baseball is evidence of the globalization of sport, Ichiro is also a vehicle through which US and Japanese nationalism can be celebrated. The framework of transnationalism permits an understanding of the interplay between US and Japanese nation-building discourses, as well as providing a specific political and historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]