Integration of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations into Japan's Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era (1990-2019)

To date, Japan has developed a feasible and suitable foreign policy to be a recognized global player on the international stage: the country is the world's third-largest economy, a leading industrial power, an active contributor to international institutions, and the third-largest financial contributor to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. Contribution to UN peacekeeping activities officially recognized in 1992 is one of the important priority areas of the state's foreign policy. Therefore, the goal of this study is to identify what factors, both international and domestic, have affected Japan's formulation and implementation of UN peacekeeping policy and determined its place among the key areas of the state's foreign diplomacy. The study shows that Japan's peacekeeping policy is a significant tool of the state in pursuing specific foreign diplomacy objectives and closely intertwined with political, economic, security, institutional, and normative concerns. Contribution to UN peacekeeping activities is also determined by a set of internal factors: perception of political leaders of how the state's peacekeeping policy should be formulated and implemented, the prominent role of bureaucracy, constraining power of legal framework, the importance of public opinion, media coverage, and strategic culture of a peace-loving nation. The study is conducted by analyzing secondary and primary sources, including official documents of the Government of Japan and the UN and materials from Japanese media and by applying methods of historical, comparative, and textual analysis.