Sato, Yoichiro, and Keiko Hirata

Summary
This edited volume puts forth a theoretically and empirically rigorous analysis of Japanese foreign policy.  It explains the impact of norms on Japan’s foreign policy behavior, drawing on three major paradigms of international relations scholarship—constructivism, realism, and liberalism. Through nine case studies on Japan’s security, economic, and environmental policies, this book examines how norms do or do not guide Japanese foreign policy and how they interact with interests and power. In doing so, this book explores whether the rationalist and constructivist schools of thought are potentially complementary or mutually exclusive.