Japan’s Foreign Policy: Between the Pacific Ocean and the Asian Continent

This speech addresses the two major strategic issues for Japan’s foreign policy: how to strengthen its ties with the United States across the Pacific Ocean and how to manage relations with the Asian Continent, notably those with China and Korea. Kazuhiko Togo will present his succinct historical perspective on what happened in 1945 and the lasting impact of those developments. Questions to be addressed will be how and why the alliance with the United States was strengthened steadily in the last six decades and why Japan’s Asia policy went through such difficulties before reaching a real crossroad right now. The presentation will conclude with thoughts on future tasks in US and Asian policy.

Kazuhiko Togo is Visiting Professor, Temple University Tokyo. He joined the Foreign Ministry of Japan in 1968 and worked on Soviet/Russian affairs, as well as on Europe, America, international law and economics. He served as Ambassador of Japan to the Netherlands and retired in 2002.

In 1995 he began teaching at universities in Moscow and Tokyo, and after his retirement in Leiden, Princeton, Tansui (Taiwan), Santa Barbara and Seoul. His recent publications include Japan’s Foreign Policy 1945-2003: The Quest For A Proactive Policy (Leiden/Boston: Brill 2005), The Inside Story of the Negotiations on the Northern Territory: Five Lost Windows of Opportunity (in Japanese). His edited works include Russian Strategic Thought toward Asia (Basingstoke: Pelgrave MacMillan, 2007) and Japanese Strategic Thought toward Asia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).