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Paper short abstract

My paper examines how Japan’s energy vulnerabilities—particularly its dependence on Middle Eastern oil—acquired increasing significance as national security concerns, contributing to the gradual transformation of Japan’s security policy and strategic identity toward a more proactive security posture.

Paper long abstract

Japan has long depended heavily on imported energy, particularly oil from the Middle East. This dependence created a structural vulnerability, as political and security developments in the region could directly affect Japan’s economic stability and national interests. This paper examines two related questions: how did energy insecurity contribute to changes in Japan’s security identity, and how did Comprehensive Security evolve after the 1980s?

The paper argues that energy insecurity was an important, though not sufficient, driver of changes in Japan’s security identity. The 1973 oil crisis demonstrated that dependence on Middle Eastern energy could have consequences beyond the economic sphere. During the 1980s, the Iran–Iraq War and concerns over Persian Gulf oil supplies further connected energy vulnerability with regional stability and maritime routes. Over time, Japan increasingly understood the protection of energy supplies not simply as an economic issue, but as part of a broader national-security concern.

The paper further argues that Comprehensive Security gradually evolved from a broad but predominantly non-military approach into a wider framework encompassing international cooperation, maritime security, overseas engagement, economic resilience, and, more recently, military and multi-domain capabilities. The Gulf War, post-9/11 security challenges, Japan’s expanding maritime and overseas activities, and institutional reforms after 2015 contributed to this expansion. The 2022 National Security Strategy further institutionalized the links between energy security, economic resilience, supply-chain stability, maritime security, and national defense.

The study identifies a cumulative process in which energy insecurity broadened the meaning of what Japan needed to protect, while Comprehensive Security provided a framework for translating this broader understanding into changing security functions and policy instruments. At the same time, Article 9 and postwar pacifist norms continued to constrain Japan’s security role.

The paper concludes that Japan’s transformation should not be understood simply as a transition from pacifism to militarism. Rather, it represents a gradual redefinition of what security means for Japan and an expansion of the instruments used to protect its national interests. The Middle East provides an important context for observing this transformation of Japan’s security identity.

Keywords: Japan; Security Policy; Energy Security; Comprehensive Security; Pacifism; Middle East; Security Identity․

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Paper short abstract

To respond to geopolitical challenges, Japan’s science and technology diplomacy toward the Global South has shown new trends in five aspects. Reasons on three different levels have collectively contributed to the shift.

Paper long abstract

Faced by increasing Geopolitical Challenges, Japan’s science and technology diplomacy toward the Global South has shown some new trends. In terms of its function positioning, the science and technology diplomacy has attached greater importance to safeguarding Japan’s national security and its advantage in strategic competition. In terms of partner selection, Japan has chosen key partners in the Global South based on a comprehensive consideration involving ideology, geographical location, and resource endowment rather than only economic benefits and technological level. Technological hotspots crucial to geopolitical competition such as defense technology, cutting-edge technology, and critical minerals have become new elements in Japan’s cooperation agenda with Global South countries. In terms of participating agents, Japanese government‘s strategic leadership and defense sector’s involvement have been strengthened. In terms of the cooperation model, Japan’s cooperation with the Global South has evolved from standalone technological assistance to strategic cooperation linked with multiple fields and multiple allies. The shift in Japan’s science and technology diplomacy toward the Global South is driven by the demand to enhance its technological power amid great power rivalry, secure a favorable position in its competition against China in the Global South, and ensure its national economic security. Japan's behavioral logic in its science and technology diplomacy toward the Global South shares similarities with that of many other Western middle powers amid increasing Geopolitical tensions. Therefore, this paper is supposed to contribute to providing an analytical framework that can also be generalized to analyze other countries’ science and technology diplomacy.

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Paper short abstract

Japan frames climate change as an element of its diplomacy. Building on interviews with policymakers and primary sources, a process tracing analysis Japan’s climate security strategy reveals that narrative framing enables Tokyo to shape regional order and legitimize engagement beyond military means.

Paper long abstract

Recently, Japan has increasingly framed climate change as a central element of its Indo-Pacific diplomacy, positioning climate action not only as an environmental concern but as a key dimension of non-traditional security. While extant scholarship extensively analyzes Japan’s FOIP vision little attention has been paid to how Japan strategically narrates climate security as a means of shaping shared understandings of order beyond military instruments.

This paper addresses this gap by examining Japan’s strategic narratives on climate security and situating them in a comparative perspective with Germany as another norm-oriented middle power. It advances two core arguments. First, Japan employs climate security narratives to reconcile an increasingly proactive regional posture with domestic constraints on the use of military force, framing climate cooperation, decarbonization support, and capacity-building as legitimate and necessary components of regional security. Second, compared to Germany, Japan’s climate-related narratives exhibit stronger regional embeddedness and greater linkage to concrete policy practices in the Indo-Pacific, reflecting Japan’s exposure to geopolitical competition.

The analysis is grounded in the theoretical framework of strategic narratives, which conceptualizes foreign policy discourse as a tool through which states construct shared interpretations of international order and define their own roles within it. The paper combines qualitative analysis of policy documents, strategy papers, and speeches by Japanese and German climate policy actors since the mid-2010s with insights from semi-structured interviews with practitioners and experts. This mixed qualitative approach allows to capture not only formal policy positions but also underlying perceptions, role conceptions, and narrative structures that shape climate diplomacy.

Empirically, the paper investigates discourses on as climate-resilient infrastructure, maritime environmental governance, and energy transition support. These cases illustrate how Japan positions itself as a normative partner in regional climate governance while avoiding overt securitization. By contrast, Germany’s Indo-Pacific climate narratives remain more globally framed and less tightly connected to region-specific policy implementation. By foregrounding climate security narratives, the paper contributes to Japan Studies and lR scholarship by demonstrating how climate diplomacy functions as a key instrument of Japan’s contemporary Indo-Pacific strategy and as a source of diplomatic agency for middle powers under conditions of intensifying great-power competition.

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Paper short abstract

How do cuisines travel when vloggers, not diplomats, introduce them? This study examines culinary influencers as cultural mediators in India–Japan relations, showing how everyday cooking videos on YouTube and Instagram spark cross-cultural curiosity and emotional connection.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines how culinary influencers act as digital diplomats and cultural mediators, shaping national food imaginaries through online storytelling. Focusing on India–Japan relations, the study explores how food creators on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok construct narratives of authenticity, fusion, everyday cooking, and cultural curiosity that shape cross-cultural perceptions beyond formal diplomatic spaces.

While institutional diplomacy relies on state-led initiatives, influencers build affective connections through personal stories, visual aesthetics, and parasocial intimacy. Drawing on theories of soft power (Nye 2004), culinary nation branding (Ooi 2015), and cultural intermediation (Bourdieu 1984), the paper identifies three key categories of culinary influencers:

(1) diaspora bridge figures such as Indian cooks and restaurateurs in Japan or Japanese chefs in India who translate food cultures for local audiences;

(2) professional chefs who collaborate with tourism boards or cultural institutions and actively shape national cuisine narratives online;

(3) lifestyle and wellness creators who link Indo–Japanese culinary exchange with themes like sustainability, mindfulness, and global living.

Methodologically, the study uses digital ethnography, discourse and visual analysis, and engagement metrics to understand how platform algorithms highlight specific styles of representation such as minimalism, home cooking, or creative fusion. These patterns reveal how influencers function as para-diplomatic actors who negotiate taste, identity, and belonging in digital spaces.

By centering influencers within the study of contemporary cultural diplomacy, this paper contributes to discussions on digital Asia, soft power, and the sensory politics of food. It argues that in an era of algorithm-driven visibility, intercultural understanding increasingly emerges through everyday online food storytelling rather than through traditional diplomatic channels.