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Paper short abstract

My paper examines how Japan’s energy vulnerabilities—particularly its dependence on Middle Eastern oil—were transformed into core national security concerns, reshaping Japan’s strategic identity and policy from postwar pacifism toward a more proactive security posture.

Paper long abstract

Japan depends heavily on imported energy, mainly from the politically unstable Middle East, which has shaped its security policies since World War II. This paper examines how energy insecurity pushed Japan to gradually shift away from strict pacifism and expand its conception of national security. By examining key events like the oil shocks of the 1970s, the Gulf War, post-9/11 threats, and the Fukushima disaster, the research shows that repeated energy crises were increasingly seen as serious threats to Japan's economic stability and social well-being. This approach helps connect energy challenges with Japan's evolving security strategy.

The article investigates two central questions: how energy insecurity influenced Japan's changing security identity, and how the principles of Comprehensive Security evolved after the 1980s. Using securitisation theory, constructivism, and complex interdependence, the study shows that energy vulnerabilities were not merely economic challenges but catalysts for institutional and normative adaptation. These theoretical perspectives reveal the interplay between material pressures, pacifist norms, and the constraints of alliance politics in guiding Japan's policy choices.

The research employs historical institutionalism and process tracing to connect energy shocks with gradual changes in Japan's institutions and strategy. It examines four main periods: the Cold War, the decade after the Cold War, new global threats from 2001 to 2014, and security reforms after 2015. Throughout this period, the Middle East remained important to Japan's strategy due to its role in energy supply.

The study's results show that energy crises and other issues threatening Japan's energy security have directly affected its security identity. In particular, Japan's security identity has been reflected in the activation of its security policy. Although the main provisions of Japan's Comprehensive Security Policy have been maintained, only the Self-Defence Forces' functions have been expanded, including their peacekeeping and peace-building roles․

Keywords: Japan; Security Policy; Energy Security; Pacifism; Middle East; Proactive Contribution to Peace; 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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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.