Conservatism And Northern Territory Diplomacy In Post-War Japan

As the most formidable obstacle, the haunting of Northern Territory dispute has hampered Russo-Japanese relation from normalization. Since the end of World War Ⅱ, never had Japan repealed its claims on those islands, and its policies were of stability, despite the frequent vibrations in both domestic and international environments. Post-war reconstruction and the Cold War bolstered the domination of Conservatism in Japanese society, and the parties cling to these thinks held the political power firmly, this trend continues despite of the end of Cold War, to certain extent, was enhanced by the spreading of nationalism.Territorial claims were intertwined with the Conservatism, and this led to discords between international reality and Japan’s domestic demands, Northern Territories dispute cannot be solved by diplomatic approaches. Foreign policies are continuations of domestic politics, the development of Conservatism deeply influenced the policy evolution of Japan, and this provides a method to monitor the track of Japan’s development, moreover, to unfold the underlying causes of that.This dissertation tries to seek the origins of Northern Territory dispute and the clue of Japanese Conservatism’s evolution, through a review of history; but our focus is to assess the achievements and failures of Japan policies, following an inter-and intra-national combined approach that bridges foreign policies with the Conservative domestic politics, and review the border dispute from a domestic perspective, Moreover, the possible influences of so called "Neo-Conservatism" on Japan’s territorial policies will also be analyzed.