Dear SSJ Forum Members,

Apologies for this shameless plug, but I am happy to announce the publication, at long last, of my book on Japanese public opinion and foreign policy:

Paul Midford, Rethinking Japanese Public Opinion and
Security: From Pacifism to Realism?
(Stanford University Press, Studies in Asian Security, 2009).

Fortunately, Stanford UP decided to publish a paperback version simultaneously with the hardcover version. The paperback costs $24.95, and the hardcover $75.00 (or
\2129 and \6401 at Amazon.co.jp).

Amazon Links:
http://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Japanese-Public-Opinio
n-Security/dp/0804772177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid
=1297056356&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.co.jp/Rethinking-Japanese-Public-Opin
ion-Security/dp/0804772177/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=12975
71206&sr=8-2

Stanford UP Link: http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=17539

This book is essentially the first single-authored full-length book published in English focusing on the influence of public opinion on Japanese foreign policy in exactly 50 years, since Douglas H. Mendel's pioneering study, Japanese People and Foreign Policy: A Study of Public Opinion in Post Treaty Japan, was published in 1961. However, from about the time of the Koizumi administration I have seen a revival of interest in this topic, especially among several up-and-coming scholars, so it would not surprise me, indeed I would hope, that we will see several more books published in the not too distant future (so we won't have to wait another 50 years) that will make their own distinct contributions.

Book Description:
In this book, Paul Midford engages claims that since 9/11 Japanese public opinion has turned sharply away from pacifism and toward supporting normalization of Japan's military power, in which Japanese troops would fight alongside their American counterparts in various conflicts worldwide.
Midford argues that Japanese public opinion has never embraced pacifism. It has, instead, contained significant elements of realism, in that it has acknowledged the utility of military power for defending national territory and independence, but has seen offensive military power as ineffective for promoting other goals-such as suppressing terrorist networks and WMD proliferation, or promoting democracy overseas. Over several decades, these realist attitudes have becoe more evident as the Japanese state has gradually convinced its public that Tokyo and its military can be trusted with territorial defense, and even with noncombat humanitarian and reconstruction missions overseas. On this basis, says Midford, we should re-conceptualize Japanese public opinion as attitudinal defensive realism.

Finally, I want to extend my sincere thanks to many SSJ Forum members who contributed to my book through their incisive comments and critiques of my argument as I was building it, helping me to produce a much better book as a result.

Cheers,

Paul

Paul Midford
Associate Professor
Director, NTNU Japan Program
Department of Sociology and Political Science Dragvoll Campus Norwegian University for Science and Technology
NO-7491 Trondheim Norway
July 2010-July 2011: Visiting Scholar, Faculty of Law, Doshisha University