Fight against air-hijacking, the rise of Japan, and the G7 summits

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K20868
• Project/Area Number (Other): 18H05664 (2018)
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund (2019); Single-year Grants (2018)
• Review Section: 0106:Political science and related fields
• Research Institution: Hiroshima City University
• Principal Investigator: Takeda Yu 広島市立大学, 国際学部, 講師 (60638328)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 日本外交史 / G7サミット / ハイジャック / 経済大国

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research focused on how Japan, an "economic superpower", committed to international politics with its enormous economic power. The case was the statement against hijacking that G7 adopted at the 1978 Bonn Summit. By examining Japanese, U.S. and U.K. documents, it brought 3 findings; Japanese Prime Minister Fukuda Takeo contributed to the statement by discussing hijacking problems at the summit meeting, though based on his personal ambition to anti-hijacking policy; Japanese government, which had been negative to the implementation of the statement, changed its mind and cooperative to sanctions along the statement; and in 1981, when the statement was triggered against Afghanistan, Japan made significant effort to maintain cooperation among summit countries to implement the statement.

Free Research Field

国際政治学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本は1970年代から2000年代にかけて、世界全体に影響を及ぼしうる経済力とそれに釣り合わない軍事力や抑制的な外交を行ってきたとされ、これまでの外交史研究においても、冷戦期の日本は国際政治問題にほとんど関与してこなかったというイメージが強い。しかし実際には、核兵器をめぐる諸問題のように脚光を浴びてきたわけではないが、同様に重要な国際政治問題に関与してきたことが当時の外交文書等から読み取ることができる。本研究は、ハイジャック対策という国際安全保障問題を例に、そうした日本の国際政治問題への関与を明らかにし、より能動的な日本外交のイメージを描くことにつながると期待できる。