Old Issues, New Responses

Recognizing the need for Japan to clearly articulate its position on foreign policy and security issues in an international context, six Japanese scholars examine Japan’s foreign and security policy options for the 21st century and present new policy proposals. The authors address such topics as ways of improving Sino-Japanese political relations, the need to rectify Japan’s plutonium policy, the importance of making relief for the growing number of refugees around the world a priority of Japan’s official development assistance program, the need for a balance between economic sanctions and inducements vis-à-vis the closed regimes of China and North Korea, the necessity of flexible development and deployment of Japanese and U.S. theater missile defense systems to restrain China, and the importance for the Japan-U.S. alliance of coordinating the differences in the two countries’ policies toward Iran.