The Logic of Conformity: Japan’s Entry into International Society

In The Logic of Conformity, Tomoko T. Okagaki examines Japan’s entry into the European state system in the late nineteenth century. Okagaki focuses on the extraordinary degree of conformity that Japan demonstrated in accommodating itself to Western norms of international relations within a very short period of time. By introducing a political science perspective to the study of Japan’s modernization, which has heretofore been studied mostly as a historical subject, she emphasizes the significance of contextual factors that constrained the ways in which Japan entered international society.

As Okagaki shows, while the international system defined the mode of Japan’s socialization in many ways, Japan’s entry also symbolized a transformation of the international system from that of Euro-dominance to legal equality. A sophisticated and significant contribution to the literature on state building and the history of international relations, The Logic of Conformity is a fascinating study of how the concept of sovereignty is reshaped by the entrance of newcomers.