ABSTRACT
Japan’s foreign policy after World War II reversed its previous policy in multiple ways. Compared to its militarism from the 1930s until its military defeat, Japan under Prime Minister Yoshida chose what Yonosuke Nagai called the “Yoshida doctrine,” restraining its military spending and relying on the United States for security while focusing on economic development. Given the concern that Japan’s belief in geopolitics helped justify the Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere based on the German concept of lebensraum (meaning living space), postwar Japan has avoided creating foreign policy based on abstract values, ideas, or concepts. In the words of Akira Irie (1966, 143), “Japan has had no foreign policy, and only foreign relations have existed.” Japan’s lack of power at the time of the bipolarity made Japan even less influential and thus not proactive in its foreign policy.
