Chapter One: The Trajectory of Japan's Remilitarisation

Abstract

Is Japan on a path towards assuming a greater military role internationally, or has the recent military normalisation ground to a halt since the premiership of Junichiro Koizumi? In this book, Christopher W. Hughes assesses developments in defence expenditure, civil–military relations, domestic and international military–industrial complexes, Japan's procurement of regional and global power-projection capabilities, the expansion of US–Japan cooperation, and attitudes towards nuclear weapons, constitutional revision and the use of military force.

In all of these areas, dynamic and long-term changes outweigh Japan's short-term political logjam over security policy. Hughes argues that many post-war constraints on Japan's military role are still eroding, and that Tokyo is moving towards a more assertive military role and strengthened US–Japan cooperation. Japan's remilitarisation will boost its international security role and the dominance of the US–Japan alliance in regional and global security affairs, but will need to be carefully managed if it is not to become a source of destabilising tensions.

Notes

Ian Gow, ‘Civilian Control of the Military in Post-war Japan’, in Ron Matthews and Keisuke Matsuyama (eds), Japan's Military Renaissance? (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993); Yale Candee Maxon, Control of Japanese Foreign Policy: A Study in Civil–Military Rivalry (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1957), pp. 1–34 and 51–53; Richard J. Samuels, Rich Nation, Strong Army: National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994), pp. 79–107; Isamu Hatano, Kindai Nihon no Gunsangaku Fukugotai: Kaigun, Jukogyo, Daigaku (Tokyo: Sobunsha, 2005).

Glenn D. Hook, ‘The Erosion of Anti- Militaristic Principles in Contemporary Japan’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 25, no. 4, 1988, pp. 381–2.

John Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II (London: Penguin Books, 1999), pp. 73–80 and 346–404.

Christopher W. Hughes, ‘Why Japan Could Revise Its Constitution and What It Would Mean for Japanese Security Policy’, Orbis, vol. 50, no. 4, Autumn 2006, p. 728.

Christopher W. Hughes and Akiko Fukushima, ‘Japan–US Security Relations: Toward “Bilateralism- Plus”?’, in Ellis. S. Krauss and T.J. Pempel (eds), Beyond Bilateralism: The US–Japan Relationship in the New Asia-Pacific (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), pp. 60–1.

Since 1978, Japan has loosely defined an offensive carrier as the types possessed by the US, presumably those with fixed-wing aircraft, and defensive carriers as those carrying helicopters for anti-submarine warfare. Yoshimitsu Nishikawa, Nihon Anzen Hosho Seisaku (Tokyo: Shoyo Shobo, 2008), pp. 163–4. Japan's full prohibition on powerprojection capabilities was outlined by Japan Defense Agency (JDA) Director General Tsutomu Kawara in National Diet House of Councillors Budget Committee interpellations on 6 April 1988. See Asagumo Shimbunsha, Boei Handobukku 2007 (Tokyo: Asagumo Shimbunsha 2007), pp. 607–8.

For the background to Japan's armsexport bans, see Oros, Normalizing Japan, pp. 94–109.

Michael J. Green, Arming Japan: Defense Production, Alliance Politics, and the Postwar Search for Autonomy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), pp. 86–124; Glenn D. Hook, Demilitarization and Remilitarization in Contemporary Japan (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 45–99.

For examples of the view that the glass of Japanese of remilitarisation was half-empty rather than half-full, see Thomas U. Berger, ‘From Sword to Chrysanthemum: Japan's Culture of Anti-Militarism’, International Security, vol. 17, no. 4, Spring 1993, pp. 119–50; Peter J. Katzenstein and Nobuo Okawara, ‘Japan's National Security: Structures, Norms, and Policies’, ibid., pp. 84–118.

Christopher W. Hughes, ‘“Super- Sizing” the DPRK Threat: Japan's Evolving Military Posture and North Korea’, Asian Survey, vol. 49, no. 2, March–April 2009.

Boeisho, ‘Kokusai Gunji Josei: Wagakuni Shuhen Josei o Chushin ni, Anzen Hosho to Boeiryoku ni Kansuru’, Kondankai Dai2kai Gijishidai, January 2009, http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/ampobouei2/dai2/siryou2.pdf, p. 14. For descriptions of the difficulties of estimating China's real level of defence expenditure, see International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2009 (London: Routledge, 2009), pp. 375–6.

‘Missairu Yogekiami ni Shingata Reda Chokyoridan, Boeisho Hoshin’, Yomiuri Shimbun, 27 January 2008, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20080127- OYT1T00018.htm.

Boeishohen, Boei Hakusho 2008 (Tokyo: Zaimusho Insatsukyoku, 2008), pp. 50–1; Boeisho Boeikenkyusho, Higashi Ajia Senryku Gaikan 2008 (Tokyo: The Japan Times, 2008), pp. 16–33. For the background on China's antisatellite test and its growing military capabilities in space, see Tai Ming Cheung, Fortifying China: The Struggle To Build a Modern Defense Economy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009), pp. 249–55.

Boeishohen, Boei Hakusho 2008, p. 66.

US Department of Defense, Quadrennial Defense Review Report 2001 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office (USGPO), 30 September 2001), http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/qdr2001.pdf, pp. 25–7; The White House, The National Security Strategy of The United States of America (Washington DC: USGPO, September 2002), pp. 22–4; US Department of Defense, The National Defense Strategy of The United States of America (Washington DC: USGPO, March 2005), pp. 12, 15 and 17; US Department of Defense, Quadrennial Defense Review Report 2006 (Washington DC: USGPO, 6 February 2006), p. 18; Yoko Iwama, ‘The New Shape of the US Alliance System’, Gaiko Forum, Spring 2004, pp. 28–9.