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.

IFPA and the International Security Studies Program (ISSP) of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy joined together to organize and facilitate this one-day symposium at the Fletcher School to promote an informed exchange of views on the new dynamics of Japan's security policy and their implications for U.S.-Japanese strategic cooperation going forward. The symposium provided a unique opportunity for a select group of Japanese and American policy experts, academics, business leaders, and officials to review and explain in some depth keys aspects of the Abe administration's defense and foreign policy reforms aimed at facilitating Japan's emergence as a "proactive contributor to peace" at both the regional and global levels. This included in-depth discussion of Japan's new National Security Council, its first-ever National Security Strategy, its updated National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) and Mid-Term Defense Program, its new policies regarding the export of military technologies, and current efforts to revise its Official Development Assistance (ODA) regulations to allow aid to foreign militaries for non-defense purposes (which would include disaster relief, but also "grey area" missions like anti-terrorism, cyber security, and maritime safety). Perhaps most importantly from a U.S-Japan alliance perspective, the symposium examined the Abe administration's recent moves to reinterpret Article 9 of Japan's constitution to permit Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense and come to the aid of allies under attack, a policy shift that promises to have a significant impact on U.S. and Japanese roles and responsibilities under their bilateral guidelines for Japan National Security Council, that are currently being revised. The many ways in which these various reforms and initiatives are likely to enhance Japan's contributions to security in the Asia-Pacific region and even farther afield are not well understood in the United States, and the IFPA-Fletcher School symposium helped to eliminate this critical gap in understanding.

Japan in a Dynamic Asia examines a new phenomenon in Japanese foreign policy: Japan's increasing activism under the Koizumi administration. Behind this policy shift are the end of the Cold War, drastic growth of China, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and new transnational security threats. This book updates our understanding of Japan's rapidly changing foreign policies in the contexts of the new regional power balance and security concerns. Unlike most books on Japanese foreign policy, which focus mainly on U.S.-Japan relations, this book analyzes Japan's relations with individual Asian countries and sub-regions. The role of the United States - when relevant - is discussed in the contexts of these bilateral and multilateral relations. Editors Yoichiro Sato and Satu Limaye have gathered an impressive array of essays that will interest students of Japanese politics, foreign policy, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan is moving toward a more independent security policy because it faces an entrapment-abandonment dilemma. Any attempt to prevent abandonment by the United States vis-à-vis China harms its national security by heightening the risk of entrapment in the Korean Peninsula, and vice versa. More autonomy is the only way to solve this dilemma.

Japan has been expanding its military roles in the post-Cold War period. This book analyses the shift in Japan’s security policy by examining the collective ideas of political parties and the effect of an international norm. Starting with the analysis of the collective ideas held by political parties, this book delves into factors overlooked in existing literature, including the effects of domestic and international norms, as well as how an international norm is localised when a conflicting domestic norm already exists. The argument held throughout is that these factors play a primary role in framing Japan's security policy. Overall, three security areas are studied: Japan’s arms trade ban policy, Japan’s participation in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, and Japan’s enlarged military roles in international security. Close examination demonstrates that the weakening presence of the left since the mid-1990s and the localisation of an international norm encouraged Japan to broaden its military role. Providing a comprehensive picture of Japan’s evolving security policy, this book asserts that shifts have occurred in ways that do not violate the pacifist domestic norm. Japan's Evolving Security Policy will appeal to students and scholars of International Relations, Asian Politics, Asian Security Studies and Japanese Studies.

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.

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.