“The US－Japan Alliance―Balancing soft and hard power in East Asia” (Routledge, 2010)

David Arase (Professor, Faculty of Politics,Pomona University)

Tuneo Akaha (Professor of International Policy Studies and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies)

We give our heart-felt thanks to the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation and to the prize selection committee for this honor. Our book, “The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Balancing Soft and Hard Power in East Asia,” includes chapters by Professors Jing-Dong Yuan (now in Australia), Daniel Pinkston (Korea), Sergey Sevastyanov (Russia), and Christopher Hughes (UK). We discuss how the United States’ security strategy and the evolving balance of power in East Asia are pushing Japan toward new hard power capabilities. However, Japan’s soft power approach to foreign and security policy, which is rooted in the nation’s Peace Constitution and postwar sentiment, still has support among the Japanese people and remains highly appreciated by neighboring countries. This presents a difficult challenge for the Japanese government as it tries to find the right balance in the alliance and in the region. We hope the book strengthens the Pacific Basin Community Concept inasmuch as the U.S.-Japan alliance is the single most important trans-Pacific link that makes the Pacific Basin community viable. We remind everyone that, to remain relevant the alliance, and Japan’s role in it, must be firmly grounded in both soft and hard power. Then, the Pacific Basin Community can remain whole. In conclusion, we wish to express our sorrow over the catastrophes of March 11 this year. Japan has shown remarkable resilience, patience, and mutual support in these tragic circumstances, and the character you have shown has added to your stature in the world. And we humbly note how Japan’s future recovery efforts could give it enormous new soft power with no sacrifice of hard power. Japan has the financial, technological, and political resources to lead humanity away from nuclear power. If it showed determination, there is no doubt Japan would succeed, and the world would owe Japan a debt of gratitude.

Profile
David Arase “Korea, ASEAN, and East Asian Regionalism,” Joint U.S.-Korea Academic Studies, Volume 21: Tomorrow’s Northeast Asia (January, 2011), pp. 34-52. “Non-traditional security in China-ASEAN cooperation: illiberal security and the future of East Asian regionalism,” Asian Survey 50: 4 (July-August 2010). “Foreign Aid.” In Robert Denemark, ed., The International Studies Encyclopedia. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (April 2010). “Japan In 2009: An Historic Election Year.” Asian Survey, 50: 1 (January-February 2010). “Japan in 2008: A Prelude to Change?.” Asian Survey, 49: 1 (January-February 2009), 107-119.
Tuneo Akaha Tsuneo Akaha was born in Chino, Japan in 1949. He received BAs in Political Science from Oregon State University and Waseda University, and MA and PhD in International Relations from the University of Southern California. He has been a Fulbright research fellow and a Japan Foundation professional fellow. His most recent publications include The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Balancing Soft and Hard Power in East Asia, London: Routledge, 2010 (co-editor); “Higashiajia ni okeru Kokkyo o Koeru Hito no Ido: Ningen no Anzenhosho no Shiten kara,” in Takashi Oshimura, ed., Koeru: Kyokai Naki Seiji no Yocho, Tokyo: Fukosha, 2010; “‘China’ in the Contemporary Nationalists’ Reconstruction of ‘Japan’,” in Gerrit Gong and Victor Teo, eds., Reconceptualizing the Divide: Identity, Memory, and Nationalism in Sino-Japanese Relations, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholarship Publishing, 2010; and “Human Security in East Asia: Embracing Global Norms through Regional Cooperation in Human Trafficking, Labor Migration, and HIV/AIDS,” Journal of Human Security, Vol. 5, No. 2 (2009). Currently, he is Professor of International Policy Studies and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, California.