Reconciliation in International Politics and Postwar Japan's Diplomacy:

Decision Makers' Synchronic Perception and Choosing a Reconciliation Partner

Abstract

This paper examines how Postwar Japan chose a reconciliation partner, by focusing on cognitive psychological dynamics in multilateral diplomacy and domestic politics. The goal of this research is to re-examine the basic framework of Postwar Japan's reconciliation diplomacy systematically.
  Despite the accumulation of previous studies, we do not understand much about the systematic patterns of choosing a reconciliation partner. This question is complicated since the patterns derive from the decision makers' synchronic perception of multilateral relationships among states and domestic politics.
  To explain how Postwar Japan chose a reconciliation partner, this paper provides a reconciliation model, which is based on decision makers' cognitive psychology. Applying general principles of cognitive psychology to their perception and decision, I reorganize the history of Postwar Japan's reconciliation diplomacy from a theoretical standpoint. The model shows the conditions of reconciliation at the international system level, and at the domestic political level. As preliminary case studies, this paper compares the Yoshida administration's attempts to reconcile with Taiwan and China, with the Hatoyama administration's attempts to reconcile with South Korea and the Soviet Union in 1950s.