Japan’s changing domestic governance and its impact on foreign policy

Two decades ago, G. John Ruggie, a professor at Harvard University, proposed the idea that the post-war international system had been predicated on the linkage between the international demands for free trade and domestic requests for welfare policies. So-called ‘embedded liberalism’ was a legacy of the post-war international order. The wealth of each country stemming from the free exchange of goods and services led to the development of comprehensive social policies, and conversely, the liberal ideas involved in implementing domestic welfare reflected the international norms supporting abandonment of the international protectionist movement (Ruggie 1982).