Social Values on International Relationships in the Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

Few studies on international politics have examined people's values, especially through use of cross-national analysis, although a country's foreign policy may reflect the values held by the public. The present paper examines results of the Asia-Pacific Values Survey and analyzes Asia-Pacific people's attitudes and values regarding international politics. Our focus is on three sets of items regarding people's attitude toward Japan, confidence in the United Nations, and ideology. First, we analyze response data for those items separately. Then, by applying Hayashi's Quantification Method III, we show that countries/areas in the Asia-Pacific region may be classified into three clusters or cultural spheres. This result presents an illustration of cultural manifold analysis (CULMAN) of international politics.

Examining People’s Attitudes and Values Relating to International Relations in the Asia-Pacific Region

“…Thus, we can clearly recognize the distinctive clustering of results into Western and non-Western cultural spheres. As Figure 18 indicates, the pattern of distinctive clustering of results into Western and non-Western spheres can also be observed in the analysis of PRVS data, which is also claimed by Fujita and Yoshino (2009).…”

“…In contrast, in Australia, the percentage of those in their thirties or younger choosing Japan in APVS (around 5%) decreased compared to those in PRVS (around 10%). Although Fujita and Yoshino (2009) found that the younger age group in PRVS thinks Japan is diplomatically important, the pattern turns out not to be stable. Figure 5 shows the response distributions for Q.3 in APVS, while Figure 6 shows those in PRVS.…”

“…However, Korean people tend to have a more severe attitude toward Japan, probably due to historical problems. We can no longer say as in Fujita and Yoshino (2009) that even South Koreans showed attitudes that were much less "anti-Japanese" in Q.3 than in Q.2, nor that more people in younger age groups have positive attitudes toward Japan than those in older age groups.…”

“…The present paper focuses on age because age is much better than other attributes such as gender or educational background at predicting changes in national values 2) . Fujita and Yoshino (2009) show that the younger generation is more likely to choose Japan in PRVS. For example, in Taiwan, about 16% of people under age 30 chose Japan, which was the largest percentage among all age groups or countries/regions surveyed.…”

“…While Fujita and Yoshino (2009) also examine social values about international relations with longitudinal and cross-national comparative survey data, the present paper tries to further deepen our understanding by extending the analyses in the following three points. First, the present paper's analyses cover APVS, PRVS, and EAVS, while Fujita and Yoshino (2009) analyze only the latter two. Second, the object of multidimensional analyses is extended to law/contract consciousness, which is not covered by the previous study.…”