The Soft Power of Hardware: The Bullet Train in Japanese Foreign Policy

Technology was a key factor in the Cold War superpower stand-off.  The fate of the world seemed to hang on who had more and bigger bombs, who could get deeper into space, who could build the most sophisticated spy equipment.  But technology also supported the rise of another kind of power.  As Japan negotiated its position within the narrow constraints of Cold War politics, government and business interests took advantage of international events to showcase Japan’s technological prowess in efforts to strengthen both trade ties and international status.  In the process, they created a globally consumed image of a “new Japan,” an economically strong, technologically advanced, yet peaceful and democratic country with an admirable culture.  On all counts, a desirable participant in global trade and diplomatic networks.

The introduction of the bullet train on the eve of the 1964 Tokyo Olympiad broadcast this new vision of Japan as a world-class nation—an industrial powerhouse and fount of high-tech innovation that yet maintained an impressive cultural heritage.  The still-expanding network of high-speed rail not only created a new experience of community for the citizens of a peaceful postwar Japan, it also redefined Japan’s position within the global community of nations.  This paper focuses on the bullet train as one of several new technologies that captured imaginations in Japan and the world, satisfying the growing desire for a nation whose power would be based not on its ability to destroy the broadest area of land, killing the greatest number of people, but rather on its facility in creating technologies that would make lives better, easier, more comfortable, more efficient, more successful, and more fun.  The world wanted a tech-nation, and the bullet train helped them find one in Japan.