YOICHIRO SATO is an Associate Professor and teaches military officers, diplomats, and other government officials at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, USA. KEIKO HIRATA is Assistant Professor at California State University, Northridge, USA.

"The book is a welcome, rigorously researched, and thought-provoking contribution to the study of a Japanese foreign policy in transition... The editors, Yoichiro Sato and Keiko Hirata, have recruited an excellent cast of characters to analyze clusters of cases dealing with security, international political economy, and environmental issues." - The Journal of Japanese Studies "This is one of those rare collections in which all of the contributors are both fully conversant in the broader theoretical concerns of their discipline and deeply familiar with the details and specifics of the cases they write about. The cases studies and the theoretical issue that they take up are central to the understanding of contemporary Japanese foreign policy. The book is a major contribution to the field." - Lonny Carlile, Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa "Professors Sato and Hirata have assembled an impressive work that applies the cutting edge of International Relations theory to the case study of Japan. A worthwhile read for both International Relations theorists as well as Japan scholars." - Kevin Cooney,author of Japan's Foreign Policy Since 1945

• Preface Power and Multilateral Idealism in Japanese Foreign Policy; Y.Sato Shared Norms in Japan's Defense Policy; A.Miyashita Global Norms and Civil Society: New Influences on Japanese Security Policy; K.Hirata Norms, Structures, and Japan's 'Northern Territories' Policy; K.Hara Role of Norms in Japan's Overseas Troop Dispatch Decisions; Y.Sato Empirical testing of Japan's ODA Guidelines; Y.Sato  & M.Asano Norms in Japan's Foreign Aid Policy in the South Pacific; S.Tarte Japan in Latin American Debt Relief; S.Katada Whaling; K.Hirata Japan from Kyoto Protocol to COP6; E.Shibuya Conclusion; K.Hirata