ABSTRACT
The Cold War structure of international politics underwent a transformation during the 1960s because of the progress of the US-Soviet détente and China’s alienation from both superpowers. The main theme of this book is to find out what Japan’s foreign policy response was to the situation. Generally speaking, this issue has not been fully addressed in the existing literature that deals with Japan’s diplomacy in the 1960s. During the administrations of Ikeda Hayato, Sato Eisaku and Tanaka Kakuei, who were of the Yoshida Shigeru school, Japanese diplomatic leaders tended to view the international environment and the transformation of the Cold War situation in terms of two perspectives: a “Japan-US-China” partnership and a “Japan-US-China-USSR” cooperation. The conclusion summarizes the overall narratives and discusses the background of the aforementioned difference in perceptions, explicating the implications of this difference.
