ABSTRACT
Throughout the post-war period Japan has maintained a policy of constructive engagement toward Beijing. This strategy was established by Japan’s first postwar prime minister, Yoshida Shigeru, who predicted that Japan could wean China away from Moscow by providing an alternative to dependence on the Soviet Union. In Yoshida’s view, a prosperous China would inevitably become friendly with Japan and the United States. While hotly debated between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s pro-Taipei and pro-Beijing factions in the 1960s, Yoshida’s approach became the mainstream consensus view after normalization of relations with the PRC in 1972. As US-Japan relations became sour in the 1980s, this same approach became the basis for arguments that a China prosperous on Japan’s terms might provide a useful counterweight to US economic hegemony. At its core, Yoshida’s strategy was premised on a faith in the principles of commercial liberalism and Japan’s own mercantile power.
