Japan and the Emotional Politics of National Image

An innovative model for understanding how emotion shapes perceptions of Japan and influences its diplomacy

For countries, national image matters. Although Japan is often ranked among the most popular countries in the world, its negative image in China and South Korea bedevils its diplomacy with these two close neighbors. If Japan wishes to improve its image in these two countries—one, its largest trading partner; the other, a key strategic ally—it must gain a better understanding of how this image is formed.

Japan and the Emotional Politics of National Image examines the way emotion shapes perceptions of Japan and influences its diplomacy. Kowert traces how the emotional dynamics of international relations delineate shifts in national image that cannot be explained solely by geopolitics, domestic politics, or historical memory. With evidence drawn from case histories, statements by leading politicians, and text analyses of newspapers, the book reveals that Chinese and Korean attitudes toward Japan are more variable than is commonly appreciated and vary in ways that can be predicted by improved models of political emotion.

With this book, scholars of international relations and of Japanese and Asian politics will gain new insights into Japan's anxieties about its own image abroad.