抄録
In recent years, an increasing number of states have been upholding gender equality norms as a guiding principle of foreign policy, with some of them labeled as feminist foreign policy (FFP). While many emphasize the ethical and transformative aspects of FFP, this paper highlights how a nationalist government with strong sentiments against liberal gender norms pursued power by strategically engaging with the tide. By examining the case of the pro-women diplomacy of the second Abe Administration of Japan (2013-2020) under the banner of “A Society in which Women Shine”, this study argues that the rise of FFP provided the government with an opportunity to mobilize ambiguous pro-women discourse in asserting its status as a protector of women and “universal values”, assuring the international community that its militarized masculinity meets the appropriate standard of modernity, while at the same time escaping state responsibility to address large scale gender inequality and past military sexual violence.
