The Japanese Challenge to the American Neoliberal World Order: Identity, Meaning, and Foreign Policy

by Yong Wook Lee

The first academic publication to explicitly link capitalism to Japan's particular foreign economic policy choices, this book offers a historically informed account of the nature and evolution of the Japanese challenge to neoliberalism. Central to this book's analysis are the historically and socially constructed Japanese conceptions of Japan's economic identity―conceptions that have shaped Japan's interest in challenging the American-led neoliberal world order. With historical analysis beginning in the 1870s, this book explicates several of Japan's key foreign policy choices, including the Asian Monetary Fund decision in 1997, and draws out the future policy implications of these choices.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 29, 2008

About the author

Yong Wook Lee is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Korea University, South Korea.