SHIDEHARA Kijuro's Perception of Japan's Position in East Asia

International Perceptions and ‘ Order Frameworks’ in Japan's Diplomacy

Abstract

The most prominent champion of internationalism in prewar Japan was Foreign Minister Shidehara Kijuro, who led Japanese diplomacy from the mid 1920s to the early 1930s. However, Shidehara's policy, while based on international cooperation, was sometimes inclined toward unilateralism. How can we explain this contradiction?
In order to answer this question, this paper analyzes Shidehara's perception of Japan's position in the world, particularly in East Asia, where Japanese foreign policy was mainly pursued. This paper focuses on the period during and after World War I. For this was an important formative period for Shidehara's policy of international cooperation: It was a time when Japan faced radical changes within its diplomatic circumstances and eventually began to pursue a policy of international cooperation, which became predominant in the 1920s. It was also a time when Shidehara, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1915-19 and then Ambassador to the United States until 1922, played an increasingly important role in leading Japanese diplomacy, thus establishing himself as leader of the new policy of internationalism.
The main idea of this paper is that Shidehara had a strong conviction that Japan was in a special position in East Asia. During World War I, Shidehara pursued a policy of demanding from the Great Powers recognition of Japan's superior position in China. The underlying assumption of this policy was that Japan, unlike other powers, had vital interests in Chinese affairs, and Shidehara began not to doubt that assumption. After the war, Shidehara fairly successfully adapted himself to the worldwide trend toward international cooperation, abandoning the imperialistic policy of the past. He played a pivotal role in the rapprochement between the United States and Japan as one of the delegates at the Washington Conference of 1921-22. Shidehara, however, continued to hold the belief concerning Japan's special position in East Asia, which he declared at that very conference.
Shidehara himself believed that the perception of Japan's special position in East Asia was compatible with the policy of international cooperation. Yet in reality the former would turn out to be an important constraint on the latter. Shidehara's perception of Japan's position in East Asia noted in this paper also meant putting a limit on internationalism in prewar Japan.