ABSTRACT
The role Japan will play in the future of the international system is a subject of mounting interest. From the beginning of its modern history in 1868, Japan struggled for national power. A series of highly publicized incidents seems to confirm the persistent ethnocentrism of Japanese political leaders and to belie an expressed commitment to a new internationalism. The Pax Americana after 1945 provided a liberal international economic order in which Japan could take shelter. The new internationalism is a product of the political philosophy often referred to as neoconservatism, which emerged at the end of the 1970s. A passive role in international affairs, which often has been interpreted as a pacifist reaction to defeat and to the constraints of the constitution, is better understood as a strategy to allow Japan to pursue its national interests of economic growth with a minimum of domestic political turmoil.
