What are the patterns of Japan’s foreign policy behavior toward Taiwan in the post-Cold War era? It is generally taken for granted that the origin of Japan’s foreign policy to Taiwan has been derived from a unitary strategic calculation related to East Asian international politics and its maritime security in the Asia-Pacific region. This conventional interpretation is insufficient. In this seminar, by reviewing three case studies in 2006, 2019 and 2021 through the theoretical lens of neoclassical realism and empirical investigation based on primary and secondary Japanese-language sources, the speaker suggests that Japan’s Taiwan policy has been shaped by the combination of three factors: the degree of systemic clarity at the international level, the Japanese prime minister’s political survival and bureaucratic prudence over the Taiwan issue at the domestic level. Since 2021, Japan has adopted a subtle approach to Taiwan, driven more by a defensive and precautionary response to the heightened sense of crisis across the Taiwan Strait.

Speaker:

Mong Cheung is Professor of School of International Liberal Studies (SILS) at Waseda University, Japan. He received his PhD degree in international relations from Waseda University and M.Phil degree in political science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He is currently a visiting scholar at Stanford University (2025). His research interests include contemporary Sino-Japanese relations, Japan’s foreign and security policy, foreign-domestic linkage in Chinese and Japanese foreign policy, misperception and reconciliation in China-Japan relations, and comparative strategic culture. He is the author of Political Survival and Yasukuni in Japan`s Relations with China (London: Routledge, 2017, Paperback, 2018). He has published widely in peer-reviewed international journals such as The Pacific Review, Pacific Affairs, East Asia Forum, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Contemporary East Asian Studies. He serves as a peer reviewer for several international academic journals such as International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Journal of Contemporary China, Journal of Contemporary East Asian Studies. He is also a columnist for the "Japan Outlook" section of Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

Moderator:

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Deputy Director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, where he is also Director of the Japan Program. Tsutsui’s research interests lie in political/comparative sociology, social movements, globalization, human rights, and Japanese society. His most recent publication, Human Rights and the State: The Power of Ideas and the Realities of International Politics (Iwanami Shinsho, 2022), was awarded the 2022 Ishibashi Tanzan Award and the 44th Suntory Prize for Arts and Sciences.