Why has the Abe administration maintained its defense spending at 1 percent of its GDP despite the deteriorating regional security environment, conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s willingness to play an active role in regional and global security, and pressure from its ally to invest more in defense? The purpose of this study is to improve the literature on Japanese security policy by considering the aging population as an independent variable for Japan’s constraints today. Constructivists have argued that the primary constraints are the antimilitarism norms created in the postwar Japan. Although these norms remain today, this argument lacks evidence as the decisive factor. The elements supporting this claim have changed over time. Realists have argued that Japan is riding cheap in the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance for its own security. While their position seems plausible, the majority of these studies were conducted before the changes made under Abe’s initiative in 2012. Through the examination of Japan’s financial conditions over the last two decades with a focus on policy shifts under the Abe administration, this paper argues that Japan’s ever-growing fiscal challenges deriving from its demographic shift are the largest force constraining Japan’s military developments. The paper further provides theoretical and practical implications. By introducing population as a factor, it provides areas of developments in international relations theory—how changes in population affect a country’s security strategy. The paper ends with implications for U.S. and Japanese policymakers

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan uses incremental changes to manage conflicting pressures over defence.This work focuses on the establishment of defence policy constraints through 1992. It discusses the various implications of using defence policy as a means of conflict management.

This study investigates the development of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces into a military force capable of defending Japan and also of projecting power within the East Asian region. According to statements by the Japanese Defense Agency, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other officials, North Korea is viewed as the primary threat to Japanese security. However, neither North Korea, nor any other potential adversary is currently capable of mounting an armed invasion of Japan. Yet, Japan continues to spend billions on defense, behind only the United States and Russia, and expand the capabilities of her forces. This study attempts to explain the motivation behind what appears on the surface to be an overly large military buildup. It does this by comparing the military capabilities being created by current Japanese ground, air and naval programs with the security threats to Japan. The threat to Japan by North Korean ballistic missiles is studied, as are other threats that have appeared in the post-Cold War environment. The final analysis shows that Japan's military development seems to be directed toward increasing Japan's role as a regional power and a participant in peacekeeping activities.

In The Hidden Army, Tetsuo Maeda traces the evolution of Japan's post-World War II military - from the vestigial minesweeping fleet that remained after WWII demilitarization to a full-fledged army, navy, and air force sustained by the world's second-largest defense budget. Keeping an eye on the conflict between the pacifism of Japan's antiwar constitution and the country's substantial armed forces, the author describes how General Douglas MacArthur ordered the re-creation of the Japanese military during the Korean War, how the military expanded throughout the high-growth decades of the 1960s and 1970s, and how it came into greater international presence when the 1973 Arab oil embargo slowed economic growth, leading the Japanese military into an intimate involvement in United States Pacific strategy. He also examines how the Japanese military posture is changing in the post-Soviet era and the possible new roles and directions for the world's third-ranking military.

Examines how the Japanese government used a series of incremental measures in three different periods to manage conflicting international and domestic pressure over defense issues in the context of the county's military dependence on the US since World War II. Details the influence and origins of such constraints as the one-percent of GNP ceiling of defense spending, various international treaties, and the strong public opinion against the military; and concludes that domestic political tranquility is more important to the government than military parity with other countries. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR