International Relations

Japan has been a member of the United Nations since 1956, and it has a broad range of diplomatic ties with nations all over the globe. However, since the end of World War II, no single country has influenced Japan more than its key ally, the United States.

The United States and other Allied powers were influential in creating Japan's Constitution after the war. The US still has dozens of military bases across the country and as many as 50,000 troops on Japanese soil because of revisions made to the Japan-US Security Treaty in 1960.

But while the US-Japan relationship still dominates, Japan's relations with its neighbors, especially its neighbors in Northeast Asia -China, North and South Korea and Taiwan - have become increasingly important. Also, Japan's trade with Asian countries has boomed in recent years, and Japan has moved to smooth over wartime resentment toward its occupation, which still lingers in Asia.

Japan also has strong ties to countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa  and Australia. It has long wanted a permanent seat on the United Nations to go with its large contributions to the UN, but so far, no serious effort is afoot to make that dream a reality.

Recently, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party have been pushing to revise the Constitution and build up the country's military. There is still some resistance to this idea, and there is much debate about constitutional revisions and the fate of Japan's so-called Peace Constitution, which keeps the country from developing its military for anything other than self-defense.

Jet Programme

One interesting international program formed by Yasuhiro Nakasone and Ronald Reagan back in the 1980s is the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, which brought hundreds and then thousands of English teachers and foreign coordinators of international relations to Japanese cities and villages throughout the archipelago. The JET Programme, which was formed to further open Japan to the West in the mid 1980s, is still running strong, bringing participants from as many as 40 countries to Japan to live and work for one year.

The program now sends about 6,000 people a year to Japan. Many of these foreign visitors end up staying to work in other jobs after their teaching stints, and some eventually settle in Japan. It is one positive legacy of the "Ron-Yasu" years.