Introduction

The academic literature on post-war Japanese diplomacy has tended to overlook Japan’s role in regional and global relations during the period between the end of the Allied occupation in 1952 and the start of Japan’s rapid economic growth in the 1960s, generally presenting Japan as a passive actor of little relevance or importance. However, in terms of international relations, the 1950s were crucial as a transitional period in various ways: this decade saw the completion of post-war settlement schemes, the onset of the Cold War in East Asia with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 and the Korean War in 1950, and extreme anti-communism of Western élites as symbolized by the domino theory and McCarthyism. The period also witnessed the acceleration of decolonization and the growth of Third World solidarity, the increase in the number of international actors in the form of non-governmental, regional and international organizations, and the rapid expansion of transnational movement of people, goods, and PRQH\,QRWKHUZRUGVWKHVFDQEHGH¿QHGDVWKHSHULRGZKHQJOREDOKLVWRU\ and national history became ever closer and diplomacy became more entwined both with global trends and domestic issues.