Introduction

Abstract This introductory chapter provides an overview of this book on Japan’s grand strategy. Although Japan has never been a superpower, it has nevertheless been influential as a major power that has, on multiple occasions, shaped the course of regional and global history. The book defines Japan as a liminal power, which straddled East and West, became the first non-Western country to attain the status of a “modern state” in the late 19th century, achieved economic great-power status without being a major military power during the Cold War, and struggled to play a more active security role at the international level in the post-Cold War era. These varying forms of liminality in Japan’s history have brought both advantages, such as policy flexibility, and challenges, such as social marginalization and the absence of existing models to emulate. The chapter also introduces historical institutionalism as the primary analytical framework, examining the shifts in Japan’s grand strategy (critical junctures) over the past 150 year of modern history.