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Mémoire
| Résumé : | The present work highlights why Japan decided to host the Olympic Games on its territory, from the angle of soft power and the will to improve its image abroad. As theorized by Joseph Nye, this concept has thus been used in its general form to dissect the governmental strategies aiming at changing the image of a country without using force or coercion. The literature surrounding our subject of study often returns to 1964, when Japan also hosted the Olympic Games to show a post-WWII Japan rising from its ashes and wanted to insert itself into the global matrix. Academics who have studied this country have often done so from comparison with countries from different backgrounds and regions, such as France or the United States.However, our study takes a pivotal position in the existing literature and places Japan as a single entity. Nevertheless, we take a lot of existing Japanese soft power data while adding two parts: one targeting the economy and regional competition, and another focusing on internal political issues. Our analysis then focuses on three hypotheses answering our starting question, which is the following one: Is Japan, by hosting the Olympics and affiliated soft power strategies, trying to conquer a new spot on the international scene and in the ASEAN region? We answer this question by demonstrating three hypotheses that group sub-suggestions: 1) Japan would have decided to host the Olympics to promote the international attractiveness of its country through tourism, the promotion of sustainable development objectives, and the creation of an image Eldorado for future foreign workers. 2) Japan would have become a host in the context of the enduring economic recession to find new economic allies and to reposition itself on the regional chessboard in Asia in the context of its competition against China. 3) Far from a soft power strategy and clear and structured public diplomacy, Japan would have launched itself in the Olympic race under the impulse of the Mayor of Tokyo, and thus at a smaller scale, invalidating our hypotheses aiming at a national strategy of influence. This demonstration is made in 3 steps and is based on 13 interviews that we have conducted, a lexicometric analysis, and a collection of official data surrounding our subject.Our analysis and observations lead us to believe that Japan has indeed made a change in its foreign policy at the beginning of the 2000s to make the country radiate internationally by using its culture and its traditions, but that the internal political machine makes it difficult to set up a clear and structured soft power strategy and public diplomacy. |
