Shiro Armstrong (Ed.) The Politics and the Economics of Integration in Asia and the Pacific. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.

Book review

安倍政権の対北朝鮮政策:「国難」言説の政治学

Amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula, the Abe government dissolved the House of Representatives in September 2017, declaring a ‘national crisis’ and pointing to Japan’s inadequate postwar defence capabilities. Since returning to power in 2012, Abe has pledged to ‘overcome Japan’s post-war system’. To achieve this, he has focused on the North Korean issue to strengthen Japan’s defence capabilities and achieve the conservatives’ long-term goal of revising the pacifist postwar constitution. This paper explains the origins of the narrative linking the ‘North Korean threat’ and ‘national crisis’ discourses and its close relationship with political discourses arguing for the transformation of the postwar Japanese state. It examines the Abe administration's diplomacy towards the Korean Peninsula, focusing on the 'abduction issue' as a major crisis for Japan

“Making the alliance even greater” : (Mis-)managing U.S.-Japan relations in the age of Trump

President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy questions the fundamentals of the global U.S.-led alliance network. Where other allies implemented hedging strategies, Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzō pledged to “make the alliance even greater,” insisting that the bilateral ties were “airtight” and “stronger than ever before.” However, Trump’s approach to trade, détente with North Korea, and off-the-cuff remarks regarding nuclear weapons invigorated criticism in Japan: the U.S. is an unreliable partner and Japan needs to prepare for life after the alliance. We argue that Abe’s embrace of Trump was successful in staving off the worst, maintaining stability at the cost of personal humiliation and certain trade and security interests. However, Trump’s cavalier treatment of Japan has laid bare the realities of the alliance, potentially revitalizing a more autonomous discourse of alternatives to the current and often “humiliating” modus in alliance management