“New Diplomacy Compass (ND Compass): Crossing Borders, Demystifying Japan” is a project that emerged out of a strong concern that Japanese opinions that differ from the Japanese government’s foreign and security policies are largely unknown internationally.
Until now, the discourse on Japan’s security and foreign policy in English, and often mistakenly interpreted as the “voice of Japan,” has been limited to a discussion that seeks to reinforce military power such as the integration of the U.S. and Japanese militaries, the importance of building a new base at Henoko, and calls for strengthening the defense capabilities of the Self-Defense Forces SDF) for deterrence.
As a result, in the field of diplomacy and in dialogue among experts, discussions have been conducted based on the assumption that military options are the only ones available in Japan. This has become a common international understanding that is causing Japan’s policy to move further in a direction that increase tensions with its neighbors.
However, there are strong alternative discourses in Japan that explore the use of diplomacy to ease tensions without this military bias, that call for the establishment of a cooperative security system in East Asia and emphasize the idea of a security system that takes advantage of the soft power of Japan, its experience as the only country to have renounced war through Article 9 of its Constitution. This is a compelling alternative discourse that could be considered an internationally valuable voice, but which cannot reach other countries due to language barriers.
In order to disseminate such discourses to the world, we are collecting essays by experts in various fields, such as diplomacy, security, constitutional law, the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), nuclear weapons, Japan-China relations, Japan-Korea relations, regional cooperation in Asia, and energy issues, and translating them into English.
English versions are available below:
Takashi Okada (Visiting editorial writer for Kyodo News)
Correct Understanding of Japan’s One China Policy and Its Future
Kyoji Yanagisawa (New Diplomacy Initiative (ND) Board Member/Former Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary)
Japan’s Dilemma: Caught between Its “Exclusively Defense-Oriented Policy” and the Demands of the Japan-US Alliance
Shigeru Handa (Defense Journalist)
Overstepping the Boundaries of the Exclusively Defense-Oriented Policy: Turning Japan’s Self-Defense Force into a Military without Constitutional Amendments
Koichi Ishizaka (Associate Professor, College of Intercultural Communication at Rikkyo University)
Consideration of the Background of Japan-South Korea Relations
Tetsunari Iida (Chairperson of Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP)
Why are Japan’s Energy Policies Falling Behind?
Miho Aoi (Professor, Graduate School of Law at Gakushuin University)
Japan’s Pacifist Constitution: A Constitutional Perspective
Miyako Kurosaki (Research coordinator, Hiroshima Research Center of the Peace Creative Organization)
The history and dualistic position of Japanese leadership towards a world without nuclear weapons
Taichi Kuboki (New Diplomacy Initiative (ND) Researcher/Attorney at Law)
Japan’s Plutonium Problem: Towards the Reduction of Plutonium
