Paper short abstract:

The paper discusses Japan's foreign policy toward North Korea in the period 1998-2006 and the contribution of the Japanese Rescue Movement to the government's decision to impose economic sanctions against the North in 2006.

Paper long abstract:

Japanese foreign policy toward North Korea shifted over a relatively short period of time between 1998 and 2006. North Korea conducted missile tests close to Japan in 1998 and in 2006, but Japan`s reaction was different in each situation. In 1998, although the missile launch was considered regrettable from the viewpoint of security, and peace and stability of the region, the Japanese government did not impose long-term sanctions, nor respond with coercive accusations. However, in 2006, after an event similar to the one in 1998, Japan imposed unilateral sanctions on North Korea, therefore punishing a neighbouring state, for the first time since World War II.

This paper will offer an explanation for the shift in the Japanese government`s policy toward North Korea focusing on civil society groups, and in particular on the Japanese Rescue Movement and the way in which the comprising groups advocated their cause to various audiences: government, public, media, and other state or non-state actors.

Based on the findings of the research, it is argued that the Japanese Rescue Movement had an instrumental role in shaping the government's policy toward North Korea in 2006 to impose unilateral economic sanctions. Alongside the instrumentalization of the abduction issue and of Kazokukai by Sukuukai and Satō Katsumi, the Head of Modern Korea Research Institute and Chairman of Sukuukai, young, conservative politicians, who came to hold positions of power in the 2000s, used the Rescue Movement and its advocated goal as an instrument in the policy toward North Korea, in order to promote a certain political agenda.

The paper also highlights the strategies and tactics of the civil society groups towards various audiences, drawing on the concept of "advocacy" with its four types: political, social, media and transnational, and underlines the circumstances in which civil society can successfully contribute to policy-making in Japan.