Postwar Nanshin and the Fukuda Doctrine: Explaining Policy Changes in Japan - Southeast Asian Relations.

This study explicates policy changes in Japan-Southeast Asian relations in the postwar period by analyzing three cases: (1) the reparations problem; (2) the establishment of the Asian Development Bank (ADB); and (3) the Fukuda Doctrine. In explaining why and how changes in Japan's Southeast Asian policy occurred, four alternative perspectives are introduced: the international system, the regional subsystem, domestic politics, and ideas. In particular, this study attempts to assess the explanatory power of the four perspectives and to explain which are more or less useful in analyzing concrete cases. Interviews with Japanese policy-makers who were directly involved in the decision-making process provide the primary data for analysis of the Fukuda Doctrine and extensive secondary sources are used for the first two cases. The main findings are: (1) Policy changes in Japan's Southeast Asian policy in the postwar era can be characterized as (a) emergence of the first coherent policy toward Southeast Asia through the process of resolving the reparations problem, that is, to use its policy to support Japanese economic development, (b) adding a component of regional development with the ADB, and (c) adding a political component with the Fukuda Doctrine. (2) In explicating policy changes in Japan-Southeast Asian relations, the three alternative perspectives, i.e., the international system, the regional subsystem, and ideas, are especially useful. Situational factors are important to explain the timing of a policy change and the degree of policy coherence. The cognitive perspective of ideas is useful especially in explaining new policy content. As such, an adequate explanation of Japan's Southeast Asian policy requires a combination of these three perspectives. (3) The Fukuda Doctrine constitutes a major departure from Japan's traditional economic policy toward the region. Playing an active political role and forging a special relationship with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are major characteristics of the Doctrine, which continue to be integral parts of Japan's Southeast Asian policy today.PhDInternational lawUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161465/1/8712217.pd