Japan 2025: Foreign Policy Transformation in Eight Postwar Decades - Focusing on Security Strategy and Risk Management

Key Points

• The aim is to analyze the transformation of Japan's foreign policy over 80 years from a risk management perspective.
• Conceptualization of Japan's shift from reactive state to risk state.
• Examine key events, including the establishment of the National Security Council in 2013 and revisions to security documents in 2022.
• Utilize frameworks of risk society theory and crisis narratives to trace the three-stage process of risk recognition, framing, and institutionalization.
• Japan exhibits structural bias in overreacting to military risks while underestimating social and environmental risks.
• These biases stem from the long-term domination of the Liberal Democratic Party and a conservative political process.
• The study suggests collaboration between Japan and South Korea as joint risk managers in supply chains, technology, and climate crises.