The Yoshida doctrine and the unipolar world

The changes in world politics and the upheavals in domestic Japanese politics from 1989 onwards can be surmised to have had an impact on Japan’s foreign policy. This article presents a comparison of Japan’s official foreign-policy doctrine, aptly called the ‘Yoshida doctrine’, before and after 1993. The study is based on data from policy speeches delivered by the prime ministers to the Diet. While elements of both continuity and change are discerned, the over-all conclusion is that Japan’s official foreign-policy doctrine did not alter after 1993.