Acknowledgements Introduction: Rethinking Soft Power through What Japanese Fashion Reveals in Australia 1. Cool Japan: An Alternative Approach to Soft Power Coercive Realist Power in International Relations New "Meaning" in the Post-Cold War Era Cool Japan: Japan's Soft Power Initiative Smart Power and Japan's Alternative Approach to Soft Power 2. Fashioning Japanese Fashion: Theorising the Intrinsic Meaning of Japanese Fashion The First Wave: The Importation and Adaptation of Japanese Culture and Aesthetics in the West The Second Wave: History and Theories behind Revolution, Destruction and Anti-Fashion Contesting Western Fashion Classics to Explain Japanese Fashion The Driving Force of Real Japanese Fashion: The "Street" Nature of Sartorial Expressions of the Self within the Nation of "No Hope" 3. Fashion and the Australia-Japan Relationship: From the Trade in Raw Fashion Materials to the Adoption of Japanese Fashion in Australia An early History of Australia-Japan Relations Wool to Connect Australia and Japan Japanese Silk to the Australian Market Akira Isogawa: Bringing Japan into Australian Fashion Adopting Japanese Fashion in Contemporary Australia? Threads and Fashion as Diplomacy, Identity, and Cultural Dialogue 4. An Empirical Examination of the Soft Power Potential of Japanese Fashion in Australia Relevant content methodology and findings from the media leading up to qualitative interviews Qualitative Interviews Post Abe's Japan's approach to soft power Can Japanese Fashion be a Vehicle of Soft Power in Australia? 5. Japanese Fashion and Limitations of Soft Power: Attractions Don't Guarantee Soft Power The "Whaling War" in the Southern Ocean Another Disagreement: Abduction of children in international marriages between Australian and Japanese Parents Fashion as a Money-Making Tool Japanese Fashion Fails as a Vehicle of Soft Power in Australia Shinzo Abe's Invision and Soft Power in the Mist Conclusion: Final Reflections: Soft Power Unstitched Bibliography Index.