Japanese Security Policy: In Search for a New Consensus

Japanese Security Policy: In Search for a New Consensus
Author: Martin Armbruster
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 7
Release: 2012-07-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3656245975

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Politics - Region: Far East, grade: 2,3, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Institut für Politikwissenschaft), course: East Asia in World Affairs, language: English, abstract: After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan has become one of the major economic powers in the world, ending the twentieth century as the world’s second largest economy. Although Japan has grown to economic great-power status, its political weight in international politics lags far behind. Why is that? During the Cold War, Japan linked itself closely to the United States as the dominant regional force in East Asia. By renouncing war and the possibility to become a major military power again, Japan laid its national security almost fully in the hands of the United States. Japan’s dependence on U.S. power marginalized its role in world affairs. On the other hand, however, the security guaranteed by the United States provided the basis for Japan’s economic rise. Since the end of the Cold War, the parameters of the U.S.-Japan alliance have been called into question. Japan’s post-war foreign policy – known as “Yoshida Consensus” – which rejected the use of military might to achieve political ends and contained several self-imposed restrictions on the use of military has been softened more and more. A development that has been documented best in the deployment of Japan Self Defense Forces (JSDF) in Iraq by the Koizumi administration. Although the U.S.-Japan alliance is arguably stronger than ever before, the role of Japan within it is probably less secure than ever before. To understand this, it is necessary to analyze the circumstances which motivated Japan to change its long-time security approach. Indeed, the Asian region has changed dramatically since the end of the Cold War. Japan is now facing several new challenges, mostly important the rise of China, that haven’t played a role during the era of the iron curtain. Do those challenges require new policies? Is there a “new” Consensus about Japan’s foreign policy? What will be Japan’s strategy for the twenty-first century? Those are the questions this paper is about. The paper is separated into three parts. First, I will analyze the factors by which Japan’s foreign policy is determined. A step that is crucial to understand possible future security options. In the second section I will present different security options, Japan has in the future. Finally, I will sum up some of the results and will present a few of my own thoughts about Japan’s future.

Securing Japan

Securing Japan
Author: Richard J. Samuels
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2011-07-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 080145798X

For the past sixty years, the U.S. government has assumed that Japan's security policies would reinforce American interests in Asia. The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however. Korea's nuclear program, China's rise, and the relative decline of U.S. power have commanded strategic review in Tokyo just as these matters have in Washington. What is the next step for Japan's security policy? Will confluence with U.S. interests—and the alliance—survive intact? Will the policy be transformed? Or will Japan become more autonomous? Richard J. Samuels demonstrates that over the last decade, a revisionist group of Japanese policymakers has consolidated power. The Koizumi government of the early 2000s took bold steps to position Japan's military to play a global security role. It left its successor, the Abe government, to further define and legitimate Japan's new grand strategy, a project well under way-and vigorously contested both at home and in the region. Securing Japan begins by tracing the history of Japan's grand strategy—from the Meiji rulers, who recognized the intimate connection between economic success and military advance, to the Konoye consensus that led to Japan's defeat in World War II and the postwar compact with the United States. Samuels shows how the ideological connections across these wars and agreements help explain today's debate. He then explores Japan's recent strategic choices, arguing that Japan will ultimately strike a balance between national strength and national autonomy, a position that will allow it to exist securely without being either too dependent on the United States or too vulnerable to threats from China. Samuels's insights into Japanese history, society, and politics have been honed over a distinguished career and enriched by interviews with policymakers and original archival research. Securing Japan is a definitive assessment of Japanese security policy and its implications for the future of East Asia.

Japan’s Security Renaissance

Japan’s Security Renaissance
Author: Andrew L. Oros
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2017-03-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0231542593

For decades after World War II, Japan chose to focus on soft power and economic diplomacy alongside a close alliance with the United States, eschewing a potential leadership role in regional and global security. Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since the rise of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan's military capabilities have resurged. In this analysis of Japan's changing military policy, Andrew L. Oros shows how a gradual awakening to new security challenges has culminated in the multifaceted "security renaissance" of the past decade. Despite openness to new approaches, however, three historical legacies—contested memories of the Pacific War and Imperial Japan, postwar anti-militarist convictions, and an unequal relationship with the United States—play an outsized role. In Japan's Security Renaissance Oros argues that Japan's future security policies will continue to be shaped by these legacies, which Japanese leaders have struggled to address. He argues that claims of rising nationalism in Japan are overstated, but there has been a discernable shift favoring the conservative Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party. Bringing together Japanese domestic politics with the broader geopolitical landscape of East Asia and the world, Japan's Security Renaissance provides guidance on this century's emerging international dynamics.

Japan's Security Policy and the ASEAN Regional Forum

Japan's Security Policy and the ASEAN Regional Forum
Author: Takeshi Yuzawa
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2007-03-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134141653

Based on primary resources, including documents and extensive interviews with Japanese policy makers, this book provides a comprehensive and detailed empirical analysis of Japan’s involvement in Asia-Pacific security multilateralism after the end of the Cold War with special reference to the ARF. Giving an in-depth account of new developments in Japan’s post-Cold War security policy, Yuzawa also examines: Japan's initial motivations, expectations and objectives for promoting regional security multilateralism Japan's diplomacy for achieving these objectives and experiences in the ARF since its formation the effectiveness and limitations of the ARF with regards national and Asia-Pacific security the effects of Japan's experiences in the ARF on its initial conception of regional securty multilateralism and the implications of this for the direction of its overall security policy problems and difficulties that arose as a result of Japan's post-Cold War security policy of simultaneously pursuing two different security approaches - namely the strengthening of regional security institutions and the Japan-US alliance. This book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Japanese security studies, as well as international relations, Asian politics and international organizations.

Japan's National Security

Japan's National Security
Author: Peter J. Katzenstein
Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series
Total Pages: 314
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN:

Japan's National Security offers a detailed examination of Japan's distinctive security policy. It traces in considerable detail the evolution of Japan's approach to the economic, political and military dimensions of national structures of government as well as a particular set of relations between state and society. One of the noteworthy aspects of this book is its detailed attention to the transnational links between the Japanese and the American militaries. The book accords a special place of the interaction between the legal and social norms that have affected Japanese conceptions of national security since 1945. Japan's National Security offers an important, meticulously researched, and up-to-date perspective on the role that Japan is likely to play after the Cold War. Together with Defending the Japanese State, these two monographs analyze the structures and norms that are shaping Japan's policy on internal and national security. The specific focus is on governmental, state-society and transnational structures as well as the social and legal norms that affect the policies of Japan's police and self-defense forces.

Japan Prepares for Total War

Japan Prepares for Total War
Author: Michael A. Barnhart
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2013-03-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0801468450

The roots of Japan's aggressive, expansionist foreign policy have often been traced to its concern over acute economic vulnerability. Michael A. Barnhart tests this assumption by examining the events leading up to World War II in the context of Japan's quest for economic security, drawing on a wide array of Japanese and American sources.Barnhart focuses on the critical years from 1938 to 1941 as he investigates the development of Japan's drive for national economic self-sufficiency and independence and the way in which this drive shaped its internal and external policies. He also explores American economic pressure on Tokyo and assesses its impact on Japan's foreign policy and domestic economy. He concludes that Japan's internal political dynamics, especially the bitter rivalry between its army and navy, played a far greater role in propelling the nation into war with the United States than did its economic condition or even pressure from Washington. Japan Prepares for Total War sheds new light on prewar Japan and confirms the opinions of those in Washington who advocated economic pressure against Japan.

Japan's Peacekeeping at a Crossroads

Japan's Peacekeeping at a Crossroads
Author: Hiromi Nagata Fujishige
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre: Asia
ISBN: 9788303088505

"This carefully researched book offers fascinating insights into three puzzles: why Japanese governments expanded their contributions to UN peacekeeping since the early 1990s; why Tokyo withdrew its military engineers from South Sudan in 2017; and what this means for future (limited) Japanese engagement in UN and other peace operations." - Stephen Baranyi, University of Ottawa, Canada "This book is the most comprehensive review to date of Japan's post-Cold War peacekeeping history. It should be essential reading for everyone who wants to understand Japan's contribution to UN peacekeeping." - Cedric de Coning, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway "This book is a timely examination of the trajectory of Japanese contributions in this area of global security. The volume analyses Japan's changing international strategic and domestic motivations to engage in peacekeeping. It takes a fresh and critical approach and fills an important gap in the extant literature." - Christopher W. Hughes, University of Warwick, UK This open access book examines why Japan discontinued its quarter-century history of troop contribution to UN Peacekeeping Operations (1992-2017). Japan had deployed its troops as UN peacekeepers since 1992, albeit under a constitutional limit on weapons use. Japan's peacekeepers began to focus on engineering work as its strength, while also trying to relax the constraints on weapons use, although to a minimal extent. In 2017, however, Japan suddenly withdrew its engineering corps from South Sudan, and has contributed no troops since then. Why? The book argues that Japan could not match the increasing "robustness" of recent peacekeeping operations and has begun to seek a new direction, such as capacity-building support. Hiromi Nagata Fujishige is Associate Professor in the School of International Politics, Economics and Communications at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, Japan. Yuji Uesugi is Professor of Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in the School of International Liberal Studies and the Graduate School of International Culture and Communication Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. Tomoaki Honda is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chukyo University, Aichi, Japan.

Japan's Defense Policy and Bureaucratic Politics, 1976-2007

Japan's Defense Policy and Bureaucratic Politics, 1976-2007
Author: Takao Sebata
Publisher: University Press of America
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0761850813

It is a well known fact that Japan spends only a small percentage of her gross national product on defense. What is not well known, however, is the fact that Japan's defense budget ranks among the top in the world and that her self-defense forces are considered to be amongst the best conventional armed forces in the world. Since empirical studies concerning Japan's military expansion are rare both in Japanese and English, the book takes up this neglected area. It examines Japan's military expansion and the decision-making of her defense policy between 1976 and 2007, focusing on the National Defense Program outline and the guidelines for United States-Japan Defense Cooperation. This book deals with how the bureaucratic politics model applies to the case of Japan's defense policy and demonstrates some similarities and differences between Japanese and United States decision-making.

Japan and East Asian Monetary Regionalism

Japan and East Asian Monetary Regionalism
Author: Shigeko Hayashi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2006-06-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134215150

Based on original fieldwork including interviews held with Japanese officials, this text provides important new insight into Japan and East Asian relations, principally through the close examination of changes in Japan’s regional policy. Furthering discussions on Japan’s new regional activism, Hayashi explores how Japan and East Asian relations have developed, how Japan’s regional policy has changed, and why. In addition, the book challenges conventional views on Japanese foreign policy, arguing that it is not reactive but incrementally effective. The book incorporates three major case studies that provide detailed narratives and analysis of Japan and Washington’s diverging ideological approaches, Japan’s policies towards the East Asian financial crisis, and its policies towards East Asian regionalism.

The American Ascendancy

The American Ascendancy
Author: Michael H. Hunt
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2007
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807830909

A historical study that looks at America's path to global preeminence examines such key elements as wealth, confidence, and leadership in its rise to power, from the nineteenth century to today, and offers insight into the nation's problematic role in the modern-day world and options for the future.