How did Japan become an "abnormal" country in world politics?

What is it about?

The idea that Japan is an "abnormal" state permeates discourses on Japanese foreign policy. How did this identity come about? This article argues that there are three different processes of identity construction in this case. Firstly, there is Japan's relationship with the US/West, in which Japan sees itself as an Other in the international system. Secondly, there is the domestic debate about Japanese "exceptionalism" or "abnormality". Lastly, security concerns with China and North Korea have driven the efforts to re-militarize in order to become more "normal". All three processes have their own projection on how Japan should behave abroad. However, with the way politicians are thinking, there is a chance that Japan's normalization process is a slippery slope to remilitarization.

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Why is it important?

What influences the behaviors of a country abroad? Is it material determinants, or is it something else? This article offers an explanation of how the Japanese identity of being "abnormal" or an "exception" informs its actual foreign policies. In this vein, rather than just taking actors in the international system as they are, IR analysis may benefit from an inquiry that begins with the question of "why" things are that way in the very first place.

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