The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is a peer-reviewed on-line publication providing critical analysis of the forces shaping the Asia-Pacific and the world. The Journal, with 17,000 subscribers and 19,000 Facebook and Twitter followers, explores the geopolitics, economics, history, society, culture, international relations and environment of the modern and contemporary Asia-Pacific region. Subscribers receive the journal at no charge, but their financial contributions allow us to publish.

The editors, including the managing editor, are responsible for management of the journal. They can be reached at info.apjjf@gmail.com. See the submission guidelines below before sending emails. 

We take pride in the speed and rigor of our peer-review process. From date of acceptance, your article will normally be published within two to four weeks. We publish monthly on the fifteenth of each month. You can expect to reach a large global audience with concentrations of readers across the Asia-Pacific including East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific, North America and Europe and beyond. You will find yourself in the company of authors rigorously addressing the most urgent issues in contemporary and historical affairs in the region and globally.

Many of the articles that we publish are republished on sites such as: History News Network, Foreign Policy in Focus, Asia Times, Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainability, Truthout, Center for Research on Globalization, Yale Global Online, Worldpress, among others.

Ethical Publishing and Post-Publication Communication

Editorial Board and Management

The editors, comprised of specialists in a broad range of subjects related to the Asia-Pacific, constitute the governing board of the journal, establishing priorities for publication and standards for peer review of submissions. Their names, affiliation and contact information are provided below, together with contact information for the journal. The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is an open source journal in which all management issues are the responsibility of the editors.

Authors, Author Responsibilities and Publication Ethics

Authors take responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of research and writing, adherence to ethical standards including approval by relevant local ethics committees, and absence of plagiarism. Individuals listed as authors or co-authors of all articles are limited to those with significant input in the research and writing. The same research may not be published in more than one journal with the exception of agreement to publish simultaneously in more than one journal. The Asia-Pacific Journal is committed to working with authors to correct errors of fact and interpretation, both in the review process and after publication, and to prevent publication of papers in which research misconduct has occurred. Online publication facilitates correction of errors, clarification, retractions and apologies as necessary after publication. No fees are required for manuscript review and publication.

Peer Review

All submissions are peer reviewed by specialists in the field. Reviewers should have no conflict of interest, should advise authors of relevant published work and offer suggestions for strengthening their contributions, and should treat reviewed articles confidentially. Communication between authors and the journal are handled via the journal editors during the review process and following publication. Articles include author identification and brief biographies that may list, among other things, education, past and present institutional affiliations, and publications. Our peer review process is recognized by Ulrich's Global Serial Directory.

Style Sheet
Please consult our style sheet when preparing a document for publication on our website.

Copyright

Copyright of all published articles remains in the possession of the author. Our content is published under Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode.

Reprinting

Articles at the Asia-Pacific Journal are published under a Creative Commons license. Permission is granted to forward electronically to others and to post Asia-Pacific Journal texts for non-commercial purposes following Creative Commons guidelines, provided they are reproduced intact and the source indicated and linked. To publish Asia-Pacific Journal texts in electronic, print or other forms, including course use, contact us at info.apjjf@gmail.com. We request that requests be made to the editors at the same address to reprint articles from the Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus and that reprints include the source of the original publication and a hot link or bibliographical citation of the original author, title and journal.

Archiving

All articles published at the journal since its first issue in 2003 and including current issues, are available online at no charge to readers. Subscribers receive a monthly newsletter providing access to current articles. Backup of all articles from the inception of the journal to the current issue is provided by Data Momentum which hosts the journal website.

Publication Schedule

The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus is published monthly, that is, 12 issues per year, near the end of each month.

The Journal prioritizes Special Issues. It welcomes proposals for special issues and articles from scholars, authors, journalists, and researcher including a brief outline and precis of the proposal.

Course Readers make the best work of the journal accessible to teachers and students for classroom use. In addition, the Journal offers Translations from Japanese, Chinese, Korean and other languages as well as links to translation of APJ articles in other languages.

Subscribers may choose to receive a free Newsletter published once a month with links to new articles and access to our entire backlog of thousands of articles. More than 21,000 people in 195 countries presently subscribe to the journal, approximately half through our Newsletter, while others follow us through Facebook or Twitter. Readers on six continents access articles 100,000 to 150,000 times each month.

The Journal is a 501 (C) (3) non-profit organization recognized by the US Internal Revenue Service. Contributions are tax-deductible and may be made via Paypal which accepts major credit cards and bank transfers.

The Asia-Pacific Journal is the recipient of The Ryukyu Shimpo's first Ikemiyagi Syuui Prize. The award recognizes that "Japan Focus has made an outstanding worldwide contribution to proposing solutions to problems confronting Okinawa."

Contributing to the Journal

To contribute an article to the Asia-Pacific Journal, contact us at info.apjjf@gmail.com introducing yourself and explaining what you propose to write in the form of an abstract, short author bio, and keywords. After approval, submit the article to us as a Word file. Please refer and adhere to the style guideline for your document.

Founding Editor (2003-2022)

Mark Selden, Cornell University, New York City, markselden001@gmail.com

Coeditors

Tristan Grunow, Nagoya University

Mary McCarthy, Drake University

Editorial Board

Jenny Chan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, jenny.wl.chan@polyu.edu.hk

Andrew DeWit, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, dewit@rikkyo.ne.jp

Joseph Essertier, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, essertier.joseph@nitech.ac.jp

Kaori Hayashi, Tokyo University, Tokyo, hayaschik@gmail.com

David McNeill, Sacred Heart University, Tokyo, davidamcneill@gmail.com

Satoko Oka Norimatsu, Peace Philosophy Centre, peacephilosophycentre@gmail.com

Matthew Penney, Concordia University, Montreal, penneym@hotmail.com

Sven Saaler, Sophia University, Tokyo, svensaaler@web.de

Jae-jung Suh, International Christian University, Tokyo, jj.suh@hotmail.com

David Slater, Sophia University, Tokyo, dhslater@gmail.com

Tomomi Yamaguchi, Montana State University, Bozeman, tyamaguchi@montana.edu

Contributing Editors

Production Manager

Laney Bahan

Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Editorial Fellow

Janet Louie

ISSN Number: 1557-4660

Citation format

Since 2002, the Journal has gone through a number of different citation formats. In 2016 the Journal moved to unify the article database and assign correct metadata to all articles.

The earliest articles listed simply author, title and date of publication. The Journal began publishing the Newsletter in late 2008 as a means to organize our increasing output into volumes and issues. Lacking page numbers in online format, the system assigned consecutive numbers to each article per issue. Subsequent articles contain a recommended citation at the end of the article.

From mid-December 2008 through 2010, articles were labeled in the following format: x-y-z, where x is the week of the year as issue number, y the article number, and z the last two digits of the calendar year. Starting in 2011, consecutive volume numbers were adopted and have now been retroactively assigned volume and issue numbers. As the publication of the Newsletter has switched to twice a month, the issue numbers now consecutively number the issues. Also, the PDF files of articles have been given page numbers, which may be used for more precise citation.

Indexes

Scopus, Web of Science, Journal Citation Reports, Ebsco Host Political Science.

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