This book explores Japan's emerging national security policy in relation to China. It considers the rise of nationalism in contemporary Japan, the recent actions of the Abe government to change Japan's security policy course and the importance of domestic views, both elite and popular, about safety and credibility in shaping security policy. It highlights the lack of strong links between China and Japan and the existence in Japan of significant misconceptions about China. It discusses the politics of Japan's alliances, examines the growth of national pride in Japan and of a more confrontational attitude toward China, and concludes by putting forward some scenarios for likely future developments and some policy proposals for a stable Japan-China relationship.

The rivalry between Japan and China has a long and sometimes brutal history, and they continue to eye each other warily as the balance of power tips toward Beijing. They cooperate and compete at the same time, but if competition deteriorates into military conflict, the entire world has much to lose. The Perils of Proximity evaluates the chances of armed conflict between China and Japan, presenting in stark relief the dangers it would pose and revealing the steps that could head off such a disastrous turn of events. Richard Bush focuses his on the problematic East China Sea region. Although Japan’s military capabilities are more considerable than some in the West realize, its defense budget has remained basically flat in recent years. Meanwhile, Chinese military expenditures have grown by double digits annually. Moreover, that the emphasis of China’s military modernization is on power projection—the ability of its air and naval forces to stretch their reach to the east, thus encroaching on its island neighbor. Tokyo regards the growth of Chinese power and its focus on the East China Sea with deep anxiety. How should they respond? The balance of power is changing, and Japan must account for that uncomfortable fact in crafting its strategy. It is incumbent on China, Japan, and the United States to take steps to reduce the odds of clash and conflict in the East China Sea, and veteran Asia analyst Bush presents recommendations to that end. The steps he suggests won’t be easy, and effective political leadership will be absolutely critical. If implemented fully and correctly, however, they have the potential of reducing the perils of proximity in Asia.

Japan's Security Relations with China since 1989 raises the crucial question of whether Japan's political leadership which is still preoccupied with finding a new political constellation and with overcoming a deep economic crisis is able to handle such a complex policy in the face of an increasingly assertive China and a US alliance partner with strong swings between engaging and containing China's power. This study of the highly topical bilateral relationship will be of great interest to students and researchers in Japanese and Chinese Studies, Politics, International Relations and Security Studies.

Capability and domestic credibility are two essential components of national security, though little has been examined as to the latter. Domestic credibility is a feeling of safety by the public, which is created or damaged by policy process in relation to national government. Japan's national security policy from the 2000s showed a confrontational posture in relation to China, but its policy of domestic credibility has not been well managed in terms stabilizing relations with China. Postwar Japan adopted a pacifist national security policy in which capability and domestic credibility were harmonized under the 1947 pacifist constitution. Japan had a special relationship with China which was respected under the policy of "China particularism". Japanese leaders adopted a concessional attitude towards China, making concessions to facilitate friendship diplomacy in the 1970s-80s. In the face of a rising China, this postwar China policy gradually changed and was discredited from the 2000s. Japan's defence policy came to define China as its object. Pacifist constraints on defence planning and military deployments were weakened and "territorial defence" of the south-west island chain became the leading concept in the 2010s. Japanese neo-conservative political elites adopted non-concessional attitudes over history and the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, and allowed political and security issues to escalate with China. In the U.S-Japan alliance, Japan began to insist on deterrence against China, which was a completely different posture compared to the 1990s when Japan attempted to mitigate the impact of the alliance on China. In view of these changes in capability and external postures, domestic credibility was gradually transformed, but was not stable. Japan increased its defence capability against China, but it only resulted in China's counter-measures. Japanese neo-conservative non-concessional attitudes resulted in a deterioration of relations with China. Japan's resort to deterrence through the US alliance was not endorsed by the United States, it was basically domestic language for the Japanese public who believed that the alliance was almighty for Japan's national security. Japan's emerging national security was distorted by the inclusion of national pride and did not allow for the stabilization of relations with China. This confrontational policy employed a one-sided public justification and resulted in a polarization of opinion in the Japanese public. National security requires domestic credibility, and without it there may be tensions. How to manage domestic credibility by public justification is the key to the achievement of national security.

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.

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.