Japan’s foreign policy posture has been undergoing a subtle but marked change, with the country pursuing a more active foreign policy in recent years, against the backdrop of the ongoing global power shifts. The country’s foreign policy essentially stems from a commitment towards making positive contributions for a more peaceful world while protecting and promoting Japan’s national interests. A critical aspect of this involves managing the domestic institutional constraints. This book uses well-researched information to provide new insight into Japan’s foreign policymaking beyond the Kantei—Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)-ruling party paradigm. The authors have used the framework of neoclassical realism to examine the impact of the 2001 central government reforms on enhancing the influence of the Kantei in foreign policy formulation and overcoming policy incoherence. Neoclassical realism acknowledges the significance of unit-level factors as well as factors such as state structure and elites’ psychology in determining foreign policy responses, apart from external pressures. In the case of Japan, while the foreign policy formulation was influenced by external constraints, the decisions themselves were not predetermined by Japan’s position in the international system; rather the international stimuli were heavily filtered through domestic factors and the constraints stemming from the ‘pacifist’ Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution. The authors observe that the existence of powerful veto players has often put both formal and informal limitations of power on the prime ministers as well as the foreign ministers. In post-war Japan, the unwillingness of the MOFA bureaucrats to change the status quo has been cited as one of the reasons for the remarkable stability of Japan’s foreign policy. Moreover, since the 1970s and 1980s, interest groups and business circles, representing the interests of different ministries and parliamentary tribes and acting through specialised Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) backbenchers, engaged in enhanced competition for influence on domestic policies. But in the era of globalisation their activities were in contradiction with the government’s diplomatic endeavours. It is observed that though the Kantei appeared to be a coherent actor, in reality most of its administrative staff represented the interests of separate ministries. The authors go on to describe the internal frictions present within the MOFA, the parliamentary tribes and the political parties, thereby establishing that the lack of homogeneity in the institutions resulted in a contentious decision-making process in foreign policy formulation.

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书评：日本的外交政策制定：中央政府改革、决策过程和外交，作者：Karol Zakowski、Beata Bochorodycz 和 Marcin SochaZakowski KarolBochorodyczBeataSochaMarcin，日本的外交政策制定：中央政府改革、决策过程和外交（瑞士：施普林格）国际出版，2018），第 242 页，119.59 欧元，ISBN：978-3-319-63093-9

在全球权力转移的背景下，日本的外交政策姿态一直在发生微妙但显着的变化，近年来该国奉行更加积极的外交政策。日本的外交政策本质上源于致力于为一个更加和平的世界做出积极贡献，同时保护和促进日本的国家利益。这方面的一个关键方面涉及管理国内制度限制。本书使用经过充分研究的信息，提供了对日本外交政策制定的新见解，超越了 Kantei-外务省 (MOFA)-执政党范式。作者使用新古典现实主义的框架来检验 2001 年中央政府改革对增强 Kantei 在外交政策制定中的影响和克服政策不一致的影响。新古典现实主义承认除了外部压力外，单位层面的因素以及国家结构和精英心理等因素在决定外交政策反应方面的重要性。就日本而言，虽然外交政策的制定受到外部约束的影响，但决策本身并不是由日本在国际体系中的地位预先决定的；相反，国际刺激是通过国内因素和日本宪法第 9 条“和平主义”条款所产生的限制而大量过滤的。作者观察到，强大的否决权人的存在经常对总理和外交部长施加正式和非正式的权力限制。在战后的日本，外务省官僚不愿改变现状被认为是日本外交政策显着稳定的原因之一。此外，自 1970 年代和 1980 年代以来，利益集团和商界代表不同部委和议会部落的利益，并通过专业的自民党 (LDP) 后座议员采取行动，对国内政策的影响力进行了激烈的竞争。但在全球化时代，他们的活动与政府的外交努力相矛盾。据观察，虽然 Kantei 似乎是一个连贯的演员，实际上，其大部分行政人员代表不同部委的利益。作者继续描述了外交部、议会部落和政党内部存在的内部摩擦，从而确定机构缺乏同质性导致外交政策制定过程中存在争议的决策过程。