Mentor: Thomas Garcia, Ph.D.

In addition to its use as a form of creative expression, jazz has a rich history of use as a tool of cultural diplomacy, asserting a given country’s soft power or reflecting national sentiments. This paper utilizes the international relations theory of macrodependency to frame the evolution of United States-Japan relations in the twentieth century. The development of jazz in Japan is mapped onto this relationship through incorporating the ethnomusicological concept of reterritorialization, building upon existing research into jazz history and transnational flows. This research further utilizes data analysis to contribute to the underdeveloped body of literature surrounding Japanese jazz in the twenty-first century. In a contemporary context, some twentieth-century patterns of dependency persist while others have recently begun to reduce or reverse; this can be seen not only in economic and security spheres, but also in the jazz subculture. Although reverence of American jazz artists in Japan remains common, Japanese artists have gained newfound popularity and influence in the US and other global markets.

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