abstract

The September 2010 Chinese fishing boat collision incident is studied as a case for Japanese party politics and diplomacy. While the Democratic Party of Japan’s inexperience was a common factor, Japanese party politics played out differently in different stages of the incident. The DPJ was preoccupied with intra-party politics driven by personality clashes before the crisis. Its hard-line position combined with insufficient understanding of Japan’s previous diplomatic dealing helped to turn the incident into a crisis. Its lack of foreign policy expertise combined with suppressed bureaucracy made the crisis management difficult. The post-crisis finger-pointing was typical of party politics in Japan and elsewhere. The DPJ diplomacy was troubled across the board, making regime transition in Japan more difficult than in South Korea and Taiwan.