The Okinawa Issue From The Perspective Of Local Diplomatic Theory

The rise of the study of sub-national governments in the late eighties of last century,people began to pay attention to the international stage of non-sovereign national factors on the impact of diplomacy.Local government as an important element of non-sovereign national factors,began to be the attention of scholars,more and more relevant research.Japan is a unitary state,On the other hand,Japan practices local autonomy system,in which way the local government shall have the power of public policy decision and management to a certain range with the authority of the Constitution.As a county of Japan,Okinawa plays very important role in foreign policy because of its location.In 1945,the Japanese fascist regime carried out Battle of Okinawa in order to strive for time for homeland defense.After Japan's defeat,Okinawa was given to American military custody and become the American military base.On 15 th May 1972,the US gave the sovereignty of Okinawa back to Japan,but there are 37 military bases being under the control of the US.In other words,Okinawa took 75% of US military bases using 0.6% of Japanese land area,which is more than the proportion of any other administrative units.Okinawa have made great sacrifices for Japan's foreign policy.However,with the support of the people in Okinawa,the local government began to maintain their own interests.The main purpose of this article is to study the political policy of Okinawa,as a local government in Japan,and the conflicts between the US military bases and the central government,as well as how the Okinawa,as a local government,maintain its own interests through the foreign policy with the authority of the Constitution and the central government.This article also gives the suggestions for the diplomatic activities on the similar phenomenon based on its conclusion.This article is divided into three parts:The first part is going to illustrate the basis of the Japan's local foreign policy,which includes its theoretical basis and its legal basis.The second part is the main part of this article.The main point of this part is to discuss the the conflicts between the Okinawa government and the central government in the aspects of the US military bases.Some of these conflicts have made effects on the national security.How to handle the national security interests and the local interests properly is the problem to explore.The third part is to discuss the impacts of the Okinawa government.With the development of the international society,the diplomatic participants are not confined to the sovereign states.Although the effects of the non-sovereign states(international organizations,subnational governments,etc.)are limited,they inject new energy into the field of international relations.