ABSTRACT
The political realists envision the continuation of Japan's traditional postwar foreign policy of concentrating on economics, but they understand that Japan has to do and pay more than it has in the past to support the management of the world economy. The compromise of Japan's sovereignty entailed in the San Francisco framework—especially in the security agreement—was humiliating for the Japanese in many ways. The Japanese acceptance of the San Francisco framework can only be understood in the context of the historical trauma that haunts Japan. The leaders of the nationalist right believe Japan can become a Great Power only when attributes of the state are restored. Demands for burden-sharing offer needed guidelines for a Japanese foreign policy in search of a larger political role in the world. The Japanese understanding of democracy differs from that of the Anglo-American tradition.
