Japan's New Politics and the U.S.-Japan Alliance - Softcover

Smith, Sheila A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876095937 ISBN 13: 9780876095935

Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2014

Synopsis

Japan's new politics challenge some basic assumptions about U.S.-Japan alliance management. From the election of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2009 to the return of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2012, this new era of alternating parties in power has revealed the growing importance of Japan's domestic politics in shaping alliance cooperation. The fluidity in electoral outcomes in recent parliamentary elections reveals the extent of Japanese voter frustration with the government. A divided Diet challenged the Japanese government's ability to implement policy. Policy reform is in high demand in Tokyo, and the U.S.-Japan alliance is not immune to the popular call for greater accountability as past choices are increasingly subjected to policy review.

Beyond partisan differences over how to manage the alliance, Japan's new politics have deeper implications for the U.S.-Japan alliance. CFR Senior Fellow Sheila A. Smith identifies three challenges that will confront U.S. policymakers as they seek to work with Japanese governments in the years ahead. First, electoral change will continue to create hurdles for predictable alliance management. Second, the challenges of alliance management should not be attributed solely to one party, but rather to the more complex domestic sensitivities to the complicated geostrategic shifts underway in the Asia-Pacific region. Finally, the United States and Japan must address the complex normative challenge to the alliance as national identity debates across Asia challenge the postwar order and recast domestic politics in Japan.

About this title

About the Author:

Sheila A. Smith is senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Smith joined CFR from the East-West Center in 2007, where she specialized in Asia-Pacific international relations and U.S. policy toward Asia. From 2004 to 2007, she directed a multinational research team in a cross-national study of the domestic politics of the U.S. military presence in Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines. Prior to joining the East-West Center, Smith was on the faculty of the Department of International Relations at Boston University and on the staff of the Social Science Research Council. She has been a visiting researcher at the Japan Institute of International Affairs and the Research Institute for Peace and Security, and at the University of Tokyo, University of the Ryukyus, and Keio University. She is vice chair of the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Exchange (CULCON), a binational advisory panel of government officials and private sector members. Her publications include Shifting Terrain: The Domestic Politics of the U.S. Military in Asia and Local Voices, National Issues: Local Initiative in Japanese Policymaking. Smith's newest book, Intimate Rivals: Japanese Domestic Politics and a Rising China, will be available from Columbia University Press in 2015. She earned her BA and PhD degrees from the department of political science at Columbia University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0876095937
• ISBN 13: 9780876095935
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 58