役職/
Position

Associate Professor at Institute of Japan Studies

研究分野/
Field

International Politics / Political and Diplomatic History of Japan

【日本語のページ】

How has Japan viewed the world and Asia?

Different people respond differently to the same situation, but the same person will consistently respond the same way when placed in situations similar to those they have already experienced. I have spent a number of years researching the origins and development of the academic study of international politics in Japan. It is an engaging topic, because it is akin to exploring the thought patterns that determine people's behavior, which are individual to each person and at the same time also somewhat fixed.

In my book Jinkō, Shigen, and Ryōdo: Kindai Nippon no Gaikō Shisō to Kokusai Seijigaku ("From Darwinism to Geopolitics: The Modern Japanese Obsession with the Equilibrium Between Population, Resources, and Territory"), published in August 2015, I describe the origins of international politics as a field of study, with a particular focus on the acceptance and development of Darwin's theory of evolution. As terms such as "struggle for existence" and "natural selection" are used in various contexts today, the Origin of Species made an impact on all areas of social science when it was first published in the late nineteenth century. In Japan, Darwin's theories became the basis of an approach by which international relations were analyzed with a focus on population, resources, and territory.

It is no surprise that people who believed that the perception of populations as "excessive" would generate conflict between nations over resources and land developed the idea of managing the distribution of resources and the movement of people internationally. The first stage of the study of international politics was characterized by the holistic perspective which was set up to see the world as one political unit and adjust the various imbalances that arose within it.

However, in the present day we are at a point where the terms "diplomacy" and "international politics" are used interchangeably, and the view of the world as one unit has almost disappeared. The concept of "security" appeared in the international arena in tandem with the establishment of the League of Nations, but now it is used to refer to the defense of individual nations. My present interest is in the process by which the holistic perspective that was originally inherent within the study of international politics faded away.

In the lectures on "Studies for International Relations and Cross-Cultural Exchanges" that I will be teaching as part of the Japan Studies program we will look back on the history of the relationship between Asia and Japan. As we do so, I would like to consider the attitudes and opinions of contemporary people. Looking back on history from such a perspective carries the risk of justifying the actions of the past. However, I believe that a true "world view" which allows us to relativize the decisions made in history has to be based on a combination of internal and external points of view.