The main purpose of this paper is to investigate how scholars have related to the term ‘power’ in their research of post-Cold War Japanese foreign policy; how they have filled the term with meaning, i.e. how they have associated it with a concept. This is done through an analysis of English...

In this paper different schools of Japanese policymaking are classified according to two variables: a) Defense/criticism of Japanese practices; and b) Number of actors. Then the common focal point of all such schools on the relevant actors and their relationships is reiterated and discussed....

This paper takes its point of departure in a critique of the predominant way in which Japanese power has been conceived/perceived in academic Japanese foreign policy discourse. As an alternative to the /lack of/ power analysis within this discipline, it introduces a relational concept of power...