【Workshop Report】International Workshop 1

Guest Lecturer: Dr. Shogo Suzuki

 Short Bio

Dr. Shogo Suzuki is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Politics Department of the University Manchester, UK. He received his Ph.D. from the Australian National University. Shogo Suzuki has research interests in International Relations Theory with reference to East Asia, as well as Chinese and Japanese Foreign Policy and Sino-Japanese Relations. 

Session

Dr. Suzuki’s presentation focused on analysing Japanese strategies to cope with Japan’s perceived ‘decline’ and the rise of China. He started his presentation by discussing the rise and fall of Japan. This part covered information on how Japan became a regional great power in the early 20th century and the country’s transformation into the world’s second largest economy in the post-1945 period. The lecturer cited the burst of Japan’s bubble economy in 1991 and the rise of China as triggers of the perceived image of Japan’s declining power.

Dr. Suzuki continued his presentation with a discussion on various strategies in coping with decline. He noted four strategies: 1) Acceptance of ‘decline’; 2) Acceptance and correction; 3) Acceptance, and compensation; 4) Outright denial. Dr. Suzuki then elaborated those four strategies and tried to fit Japan’s case into the framework. Japan itself pursued a strategy to cope with the current international situation by promoting its positive side. For example, Japan promoted its liberal democratic credentials to respond the rise of China. In the case of South Korea, Japan tried to portray itself as the better side by using narcissistic inward-looking narratives that emphasize on Japanese unique futures. This strategy managed to lift the positive side of Japan vis a vis its competitors. However, the speaker noted the potential detrimental impacts of such strategy, for example, its contribution to historical revisionism to discredit China and South Korea.

During the question and answer session, several students asked Dr. Suzuki various questions, ranging from the defining the terms of ‘decline’ to the application of the concept in the long run.