Abe Shinzo and Value-Oriented Diplomacy: Combining Global Norms and Domestic Ideology

The second Abe Shinzo Cabinet re-introduced value-oriented diplomacy, which was originally set up during the first Abe Cabinet (2006-2007), as Japan's diplomatic doctrine. Value-oriented diplomacy was the foundation of a "free and open Indo-Pacific" during the second Abe Cabinet and continues to be a pillar of the Japanese government's diplomatic approach after Abe. This paper examines how the Abe Cabinet's value-oriented diplomacy has transformed the Japanese government's history policy and how to link it with its change of Asian policies. According to value-oriented diplomacy, the Japanese government emphasizes the significance of democracy and human rights as the core principles of its diplomatic policy. Value-oriented diplomacy is the recent version of Japan's effort to characterize Japan as a global normative leader, emphasizing human security norms. However, in real East Asian international politics, value-oriented diplomacy became a tool for confronting China and North Korea. Although the human security norm was mainly introduced in Japan's diplomatic discourse in the mid-1990s by mild-conservative internationalists or progressives, it was taken over by hawkish conservative political leaders in the 2000s. By linking it with domestic "safety" values, they could transfer the substantial meaning of human security in Japan as an ideological principle for withstanding neighboring countries. This paper will track how Japan's hawkish conservative political leaders could take over the human security norm, which is universally accepted in the democratic world, and mobilize it for the reinforcement of domestic conservative ideology in Japan.