In this book, Daniel Kliman argues that the years following September 11, 2001, have marked a turning point in Japan's defense strategy. Utilizing poll data from Japanese newspapers as well as extensive interview material, Kliman chronicles the erosion of normative and legal restraints on Tokyo's security policy. In particular, he notes that both Japanese elites and the general public increasingly view national security from a realpolitik perspective. Japan's more realpolitik orientation has coincided with a series of precedent-breaking defense initiatives. Tokyo deployed the Maritime Self-Defense Force to the Indian Ocean, decided to introduce missile defense, and contributed troops to Iraq's post-conflict reconstruction. Kliman explains these initiatives as the product of four mutually interactive factors. In the period after September 11, the impact of foreign threats on Tokyo's security calculus became ever more pronounced; internalized U.S. expectations exerted a profound influence over Japanese defense behavior; prime ministerial leadership played an instrumental role in deciding high profile security debates; and public opinion appeared to overtake generational change as a motivator of realpolitik defense policies. This book rebuts those who exaggerate the nature of Japan's strategic transition. By evaluating potential amendments to Article 9, Kliman demonstrates that Tokyo's defense posture will remain constrained even after constitutional revision.

After the end of World War II, Japan was reborn as a democratic country. Japan decided to choose the alliance with the United States to guarantee its security. Japan has been building a modest defense capability under the provision of the Constitution of 1946, while firmly maintaining the Japan-U.S. Security arrangements. In an effort to establish the Japan Self Defense Forces (JSDF) in the early 1950s, the Government of Japan issued the interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution. This interpretation has prohibited Japan from exercising the right of collective self-defense and has long been the most important premise for Japan's post-WWII security policy. During the Cold War period, the first security priority for Japan was to cope with the Soviet military threat. However, a series of epoch-making events in the early stages of the post Cold War period reflected the change in Japan's security policy and enlarged the roles and missions of the JSDF. At the same time, the Japan-U.S. alliance entered a new stage of development. The alliance changed its nature from the traditional anti-Soviet focus to an Asia-Pacific-wide security approach. Thus, Japan could no longer be as innocent vis-a'-vis its national security and its role in international security issues, especially in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. Although dispatching Japan's destroyers and supply vessels to the Indian Ocean in support of the coalition campaign against terrorism marked one of the most significant strides in Japan's global military role since World War II, Japan's security policy may have reached its culminating point. Further efforts should be made so that Japan can fully implement its expected role within the international community. In order to fully participate in future coalition efforts that help ensure peace and stability of the world, Japan should make another great leap and allow itself to exercise the right of collective self-defense.

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.

This book examines Japanese post-Cold War security policy, analyzing how Japan reacted to the end of the Cold War, the results of the transformation in the post-Cold War security environment, and exactly how Japanese security has changed from its Cold War design.

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.