Japans Security Agenda

Long constrained as a security actor by constitutional as well as external factors, Japan now increasingly is called to play a greater role in stabilizing both the Asia-Pacific region and the entire international system. Japan's Security Agenda explores the country's diplomatic, political, military, and economic concerns and policies within this new context.

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.

The field of security studies is undergoing a major re-evaluation in the post-Cold War era, and this has important implications for the region. The security dangers of the 1990s and beyond are different and more complex than those of the Cold War, and strategic thinkers both in the academic and policy-making spheres must begin to understand the new environment lest they fall into the old trap of planning for the next conflict based on the conditions of the last conflict. This book is designed to survey the new environment, assessing what has changed and what remains the same, and suggesting what types of demands future strategists will face.

Only of late has defense "burden sharing" emerged as a key issue in U.S.-Japanese relations. This monograph examines the legal, political, economic, and attitudinal constraints inhibiting the Japanese from contributing more to their defense. Includes discussion on the legal obligation of burden sharing; indicators of contribution to defense; legal, policy, and political constraints; Japan's defense contribution and some initiatives for increased burden sharing; and U.S. strategy to influence Japan's contribution. Charts and tables.

While the US-Japan alliance has strengthened since the end of the Cold War, Japan has, almost unnoticed, been building security ties with other partners, in the process reducing the centrality of the US in Japan’s security. This book explains why this is happening. Japan pursued security isolationism during the Cold War, but the US was the exception. Japan hosted US bases and held joint military exercises even while shunning contacts with other militaries. Japan also made an exception to its weapons export ban to allow exports to the US. Yet, since the end of the Cold War, Japan’s security has undergone a quiet transformation, moving away from a singular focus on the US as its sole security partner. Tokyo has begun diversifying its security ties. This book traces and explains this diversification. The country has initiated security dialogues with Asian neighbors, assumed a leadership role in promoting regional multilateral security cooperation, and begun building bilateral security ties with a range of partners, from Australia and India to the European Union. Japan has even lifted its ban on weapons exports and co-development with non-US partners. This edited volume explores this trend of decreasing US centrality alongside the continued, and perhaps even growing, security (inter) dependence with the US. New Directions in Japan’s Security is an essential resource for scholars focused on Japan’s national security. It will also interest on a wider basis those wishing to understand why Japan is developing non-American directions in its security strategy.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of Japan's national security institutions and policy today, including a detailed discussion of Japan's regional security environment and its alliance with the United States in the context of the Democratic Party of Japan's rise to power in August 2009. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, making Japan one of the United States's longest and most important military allies. Over 40,000 US troops are based in Japan, as is the only U.S. aircraft carrier based outside the United States, the USS George Washington. Japan possesses one of the world's largest economies and strongest military forces, and as a result, its national security policies and institutions are highly significant—not just to America, but to the rest of the global community as well. This book provides an overview of Japan's transformation into one of the world's most capable military powers over the past 150 years. Particular attention is paid to developments in the past decade, such as the 2009 change in the controlling political party and Japan's responses to new global security threats.

Japan is shifting onto a new trajectory for a more muscular national security policy, US-Japan alliance ties functioning for regional and global security, and the encirclement of China's influence in East Asia. The author explores how PM Abe Shinz?'s doctrine may prove contradictory and counter-productive to Japanese national interests.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Other States, grade: 72% - First Class Honours, University of Greenwich, language: English, abstract: This paper argues that because of the new reality of the twenty-first century where the United States is beginning to decline, China is rising and North Korea has acquired nuclear capabilities, Japan may need to rethink its foreign and security policy which are deeply anchored on its alliance with Washington. In the light of these new challenges, this paper considers potential problems and constrains in Tokyo's current strategy and suggests it may not be in Japan's best interest to continue pursuing them. Finally, alternatives to Japan's security policy are considered and this paper concludes that no single alternative could replace the U.S.-Japan alliance as an effective security policy in the foreseeable future. Rather, all the alternatives pursued together would potentially lead to an efficacious option, consequently providing Japan's foreign policy with greater independence from the United States.