Mercantile Realism and Japanese Foreign Policy

Situating Somali Piracy in Japanese Security Policy

“…Additionally, defensive realists predict that Japan will enhance its defensive capabilities whilst assuring its neighbours that it is not on a path to remilitarisation. Finally, Japan, defensive realists predict, will utilise its economic strength to pursue power via mercantilist policies (Heginbotham and Samuels, 1998;Green 2001). Overall, neorealist interpretations highlight the explanatory power of post-Cold War…”

“…Indeed, Japan's prioritisation of the economic aspects of international relations has led several scholars to classify its foreign policy as mercantile realism (Heginbotham and Samuels, 1998). This economic logic is evident in the Yoshida Doctrine, Japan's first major post-war foreign policy doctrine.…”

Nationalism and Power Politics in Japan’s Relations with China: A Neoclassical Realist Interpretation

“…Similarly, analysis of Japan's shifting foreign/security policies by Heginbotham and Samuels (1998;, Singh (2002), Hughes (2005), Shuja (2006), Samuels (2006), and Kliman (2006), and specifically, its China policy by Green and Self (1996), Green (1999;, and Choi (2003), came up with terminologies like "normal country", "mercantile realism", "reluctant realism", "creeping realism", "transitional realism", and "selective realism", to characterise what they saw as Japan's increasingly realist-oriented external/security orientations, and its inclination towards a containment-cum-engagement strategy, or policy of hedging against China's rise in the fluid East Asian environment. A realist-oriented definition of engagement is partially employed by Drifte (2003), and Hughes (2005), who both see Japan as having chosen a policy that is "based on providing China with economic and political incentives, hedged by military balancing through its own military force and the military alliance with the US" (Drifte 2003:3).…”

Power in the 21st Century

“…See for exampleStrange (1992: 1-15),Baldwin (1985),Keohane and Nye (1977). 7 This phenomenon has also been referred to as 'mercantile realism': mobilizing potential power while carefully hedging against possible threats(Heginbotham and Samuels 1998). 8 For more on this argument seeRadtke (2008).…”