foreign policy

Japan

U.S. - Japan relations

is, for Japanese, such that the us-Japanese relationship is its bedrock. U.S. Pressures penetrate Japanese's domestic policymaking processes by taking advantage of bureaucratic conflicts so that they may affect foreign policy outcomes.

Robert Orr demonstrates the crucial role of the US with respect to Japan's aid policymaking (Orr 1990). He argues that the US has been able to exercise its influence on Japan's aid policy process principally through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), whose officials acknowledge that the USJapan relationship is the bedrock of Japan's foreign policy (although he notes the US has not always been successful in pressuring Japan). His study is significant in that he actually shows how US pressures have penetrated Japan's domestic policymaking processes by taking advantage of bureaucratic conflicts so that they may affect foreign policy outcomes. However, his analysis gives too much weight to the role of US pressures. As some scholars observe, Japan's aid policy has greatly reflected its own motivations, which Orr refers to only briefly (Yasutomo 1986, Rix 1993b).

is the bedrock of Japanese's foreign relations policy.

Robert OrrThinkers

Robert Orr