Utilizing
the examples of three G7/8 summits held in Japan in recent years—the 2000
Kyūshū-Okinawa summit, the 2008 Hokkaidō-Tōyako summit, and the 2016 Ise-Shima
summit—this article analyzes the extent to which the norm of inclusive approach
to the participation of civil society in global governance processes has been
embraced by subsequent Japanese governments. The article proposes that the norm
of civil society inclusion in global governance processes has not yet taken
sufficient hold among Japanese ruling elites, and the extent and the conditions
of civil society organization participation in the summits were dictated by the
political philosophy of the given prime minister in power, resulting in an
inconsistent and contradictory approach to nongovernmental actors. 

KEYWORDS:
Japanese civil society, G7/8 summitry, global governance.