This Historical Dictionary is in the familiar format of the series and is attractively produced with a bright, white hard cover and a clear layout. Japanese foreign policy is defined as beginning in 1853 when the country began to open its borders to the outside world after two centuries of seclusion. The concept of “seclusion” provides a prime example of the main problem with this dictionary, as with others in the series: you need to be adept at guessing what terms will be used as entry points. There is no entry or cross-reference for “seclusion” or for the standard Japanese term sakoku; instead, it is found under the heading, “National Seclusion”.
A similar example is the “First Japanese Embassy to Europe”. There is no entry for embassies, foreign embassies or even Europe, although the European Union is included. The entries for individual European countries indicate that this volume is aimed in particular at an American audience. In the page-long entry for the European Union, about a third is devoted to a description of the institution, with discussion of relations with Japan then following. Similar proportions of coverage occur in entries for other European countries.
While there are headings for both China and People’s Republic of China, containing overlapping information, Korea is discussed under Democratic People’s Republic and Republic of Korea with no cross-references. This is particularly unhelpful as Japan’s relationship with the Korean peninsula predates the establishment of these countries. This is indicated by the entry for Seikanron, which is defined as “Claim of sending an expeditionary force to Korea to open doors to the world”. This is not a standard translation of the term, which appears more commonly as “Advocacy of a punitive expedition to Korea” or “Debate on the subjugation of Korea”, both phrases which indicate greater aggression. However defined, it is not a particularly well-known term and would be difficult to find for most non-Japanese speakers.
In general, the dictionary seems to be aimed at monolingual readers and almost all headings are in English rather than Japanese and no Japanese characters are provided. One exception is Fukoku Kyohei, “Enrich the country and strengthen the military”, a nineteenth-century period political slogan, but an almost contemporary phrase Wakan Yosai appears only in the form, “Eastern ethics, Western Science” without the Japanese form even mentioned.
There are some occurrences of strange language use, for example, in the entry for History of Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (which at least does have a see reference from Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the text reads: “after the end of the war the Ministry of Foreign Affairs redeemed its power”, where resumed or regained seem more appropriate.
The choice and content of terms are presumably driven by the stated target audience of high school and college students. It may be the case that the book has been designed with specific courses in mind for which the terms used relate to standard questions.
A major feature of the dictionary are the numerous brief biographies of key individuals, mostly Japanese. Other content consists of a lengthy chronological essay on Japanese foreign policy up to 2014, a list of abbreviations, a chronology from 1854 to July 2014, lists of prime ministers, foreign ministers and vice foreign ministers, plus an 18-page bibliography in themed sections.
This book would be of most use in libraries serving users who are studying Japanese foreign policy at a basic level, especially those on courses that have the same approach to the subject as its authors. The biographical entries are of value to a wider audience, but the choice of entry terms and limited cross-references mean that it will be hard for many users to find information on the concepts that interest them.
