During half a century after the war Japan's economy was built up from scratch to the world's number two, while its foreign policy has been described by many as passive and even verging on being non-existent. As a contrast, this book evinces how the foundations of Japan's foreign policy were laid in the early postwar period, and how postwar policies have been characterized by pervasive continuity, guided by distinct national goals and expressed in clear-cut national role conceptions. The far-reaching changes after the end of the Cold War transformed Japan’s domestic political system. Consequently, the analyses for 1946–93 (covered in the first edition) and 1993–2020 (added in the current edition) are structured differently. In the former, each prime minister gets a chapter except for the initial period 1946–54 when three premiers figure, while the prime ministers for 1993–2020 are treated as members of triads, except the long-reigning Koizumi Junichirō and Abe Shinzō.

Bert Edström is currently Nonresident Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm-based Institute for Security and Development Policy. He is the author of Japan and the Challenge of Human Security (2008), Sweden–Japan. 150 years of Friendship and Cooperation (2018), Master Spy on a Mission. The Untold Story of Onodera Makoto and Swedish Intelligence (2021), and Four Essays on the History of East Asian Studies at Stockholm University (2024).