ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of Japan's policy toward the DPRK since the end of the Cold War and before the launch of a Taepodong-2 and the second nuclear test in 2009. It examines international and domestic factors influencing Japan's policy. Tokyo initiated normalization talks with Pyongyang in January 1991. After the nuclear test, the Bush administration softened its stance toward the DPRK. However, the Abe administration made it clear that it would oppose the rescission and would not take part in the multilateral assistance unless sufficient progress was made on the abduction issue. The US, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Republic of Korea (ROK), and China (PRC) have had a large influence on Japan's North Korea policy. The nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula in the early 1990s, November 1995 saw the Murayama administration revise the National Defense Program Guidelines, in view of possible contingencies on the Korean peninsula.
