Multilateral Diplomacy

Abstract

The multilateral impulse has been strong in Japan’s postwar foreign policy thinking, but in practice it has often been elusive. After joining the United Nations in 1956, the Japanese Foreign Ministry declared in the preamble of the Diplomatic Blue Book that “UN-centrism” would become a central pillar of Japan’s world role, but the Soviet veto on the Security Council undermined any hopes of achieving collective security through the UN. Efforts to establish regional multilateral forums proved no more productive. Japan had resisted the Eisenhower administration’s attempts to establish a NATO-style collective defense organization in Asia after the Korean War, and subsequent Soviet proposals for region-wide multilateral frameworks were seen as cynical efforts to limit U.S. influence in the region. Aside from the Asian Development Bank, even regional economic groupings proved difficult to establish. The Cold War, in short, was not kind to multilateralism in Asia. By 1958 “UN-centrism” disappeared from the preamble of the Diplomatic Bluebook.¹ While Tokyo continued incrementally to increase its profile in the UN and its ties to other Asian states, Japan had nowhere else to turn for its security other than the United States.