Japan's Threat Perception during the Cold War

A Psychological Account

Eitan Oren

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781032148298
• eBook ISBN: 9781000836127
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

Oren re-examines Japan's threat perception during the first two decades of the Cold War, using a wide range of source materials, including many unavailable in English, or only recently declassified.

There is a widely shared misconception that during the Cold War the Japanese were largely shielded from threats due to the American military protection, the regional balance of power, Japan's geographical insularity, and domestic aversion to militarism. Oren dispels this, showing how security threats pervaded Japanese strategic thinking in this period.

By dispelling this misconception, Oren enables us to more accurately gauge the degree to which Japan's threat perception has evolved during and after the end of the Cold War and to enhance our understanding of Tokyo's strategic calculus in the current situation of rivalry between China and the United States.

This book will be of great value to both scholars of Japanese history and contemporary international relations.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Japan’s threat perception – introduction
• 2 An alternative framework for the analysis of Japan’s threat perception
• 3 Japan’s threat perception in the early Cold War era (1952–1972)
• 4 Explaining Japan’s threat perception
• 5 Conclusion
• Index