ABSTRACT
Petrice Flowers is part of a generation of scholars of Japanese politics and foreign policy who have paid special attention to the roles of international norms and transnational movements. In this chapter, she helps to turn the analytical lens of transnationalism back on Japan, showing how participants in Japanese political debates view the management of globally prescribed solutions. Focusing particularly on the handling of refugees, Flowers shows that the NGOs often lionized as key elements in Japan’s new aid politics are themselves forced to make difficult choices regarding their willingness to confront state priorities or to act as faithful vessels of key policy designs. By problematizing the relationships between state and non-state actors in these debates over global solutions, Flowers demonstrates how debates over Japan’s proper international engagement can have profound domestic consequences.
