Japan in Asia: Post-cold-war diplomacy
Japan in Asia: Post-cold-war diplomacy
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日本在亚洲:冷战后外交
DOI:
10.1080/18692729.2018.1449409
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发表时间:
2018
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
André Asplund
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
André Asplund
Japan in Asia: post-cold-war diplomacy is a newly published English version of Akihiko TanakaLs Aji no naka no Nihon from 2007. Through the bookLs 11 accessibly written chapters Tanaka targets a wide audience and offers a glimpse into JapanLs diplomatic efforts and ambitions as he guides the reader through the most prominent political and economic turn of events in East Asia from the Cold War until today. Starting with the fall of Saigon in 1975 and JapanLs immediate provision of development assistance to a unified Vietnam, the somewhat reluctantly critical reaction to the Tiananmen Square incident, and onwards to the onand-off relationships with its immediate neighbors-China, North and South Korea-the book tells a tale of a country trying to find its place in international politics by building bridges-literally through foreign aid, and figuratively through promoting regionalism in Asia. While the book links Japanese diplomatic and political dealings with allies and adversaries, actions and reactions to events of contemporary Asian history, it also paints a picture of a country trying to find its place in the world and live up to the demands of the international community, a nation struggling in its pursuit of identity, and one which in the eyes of other Asian nations like China and South Korea is failing to properly address and deal with its war-time past.The bookLs main argument, although not explicitly provided as such, is that years of Japanese contacts with the rest of Asia-from the policies of the Fukuda administration in 1977, which would come to attach increased importance to the need for Lheart-toheart understandingsL between Japan and the Southeast Asian nations-has finally started to pay dividends and generated an overall positive view of Japan among its Asian neighbors, many of which experienced Japanese war-time aggression and occupation. Between the lines, it is clear that these LcontactsL have more often than not been spelled ODA (Official Development Assistance, or simply foreign aid). And although the incumbent Shinzo Abe administration is given its own chapter, astonishingly little attention is being directed toward the contemporary use of ODA in Southeast Asia, and its potential new meanings: since AbeLs return to power, the National Security Strategy as well as the Development Cooperation Charter has highlighted how ODA will be utilized even more strategically in the future, and used for JapanLs own security (eg, Yamamoto, 2017). Here, given that Tanaka has served as the president of JICA (the Japanese International Cooperation Agency) and as such presumably has been able to acquire extensive insights into the dealings with the higher echelons of governments, the book does not really problematize the use of Japanese aid in the region with regard to JapanLs own strategic interests-particularly vis-á-vis a burgeoning aid power like China.