Chapter Three: The Transformation of Civilian Control

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

Tsuneo Watanabe, ‘The Bankruptcy of Civil–Military Relations in Japan’, NIRA Review, Summer 1996, http://www.nira.or.jp/past/publ/review/96summer/watanabe.html.

Richard J. Samuels, Politics, Security, and Japan's Cabinet Legislation Bureau: Who Elected These Guys Anyway?, JPRI Working Paper, no. 99, March 2004, http://www.jpri.org/publications/workingpapers/wp99.html.

Koketsu Atsushi, Bumin Tosei: Jieitai wa Doko Iku Ka (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2005), p. 6.

The Mitsuya Kenkyu or Three Arrows Study incident was exposed by SDPJ member Haruo Okada on 10 February 1965, when he charged that the JSDF under its 1963 General Defense Plan of Operation had been planning to establish an authoritarian government in Japan in the event of a crisis on the Korean Peninsula. Okada also claimed that the Mitsuya Kenkyu contained the following items: Japan would be an integral part of US strategy in the Far East and serve as the base for US operations; the JSDF would train jointly with US, Taiwanese and South Korean troops; in another Korean crisis precipitated by a North Korean and Chinese invasion of South Korea, the JSDF would fulfill defensive assignments, including the blockade of the eastern coast of China, as well as acting as a reserve force in Japan, Korea and Manchuria; and that, during a period of emergency, Japan as a whole would be mobilised with necessary agencies to control and regulate services previously managed by civilian bodies. Prime Minister Eisaku Sato at first denied the existence of the General Defense Plan of Operation, but later acknowledged that it was real, though he defended it on the grounds that it was merely a theoretical study by the JSDF and not a national defence plan. For more details see Christopher W. Hughes, Japan's Economic Power and Security: Japan and North Korea (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 58. For the Kurisu incident, see Katsuya Hirose, Kanryo to Gunjin: Bunmin Tosei no Genkai (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1989); Atsushi Koketsu, Bumin Tosei: Jieitai wa Doko Iku Ka (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2005), p. 45.

Shigenobu Tamura, Boeisho Tanjo: Sono Igi to Rekishi (Tokyo: Naigai Shuppan, 2007), pp. 53–66.

Koketsu, Bumin Tosei: Jieitai wa Doko Iku Ka, pp. 47–8; Eiichi Katahara, ‘Japan: From Containment to Normalization’, in Muthiah Alagappa (ed.), Coercion and Governance: The Declining Political Role of the Military in Asia (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001), p. 82; Funabashi Yoichi, Domei Hyoryu (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1997), pp. 128–33.

Koketsu, Bumin Tosei: Jieitai wa Doko Iku Ka, pp. 47–8, 55; ‘Gear Shift on Constitutional Change’, Japan Times Online, 24 December 2004, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20041224a5.html.

Boeisho, Boeisho Secchiho, 2007, http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S29/S29HO164.html.

The wording of the section up until 2002 had read: ‘At the JDA, the Director General administers and controls the JSDF. The Director General is assisted in policy and planning by the Senior Vice-Minister for Defense and two Parliamentary Secretaries for Defense. In addition, the Administrative Vice- Minister supports the Director General and oversees the administration, and the Defense Counsellors assist the Director General regarding the basic direction of policy’ (author's translation). The new wording of this section deleted the second sentence and the reference to the role of the administrative vice-minister and defense counsellors in civilian control altogether. For a comparison of the two texts, see Boeichohen, Boei Hakusho 2002 (Tokyo: Zaimusho Insatsukyoku, 2002), p. 88; Boeichohen, Boei Hakusho 2003 (Tokyo: Zaimusho Insatsukyoku, 2003), p. 90.

Koketsu, Bumin Tosei: Jieitai wa Doko Iku Ka, pp. 2–3.

‘Admiral Proposes SDF Less Run by Civilians’, Japan Times Online, 3 July 2004, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20040703a1.html.

Defense Policy Studies Subcommittee, National Defense Division, Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party, Recommendations on Japan's New Defense Policy: Toward a Safer and More Secure Japan in the World, 30 March 2003, http://www.jimin.jp/jimin/main/seisaku.html.

‘Defense Agency To Retain Civilian Buffer Around Chief’, Japan Times Online, 28 December 2004, http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20041228a5.html; Boeichohen, Boei Hakusho 2007 (Tokyo: Zaimusho Insatsukyoku, 2007), p. 164.

Boeichohen, Boei Hakusho 2003, pp. 305–6.

Teruaki Koide, ‘Sengo no Nihon no Seigun Kamkei: Bunkan Yui Seido o Chushin ni’, Kokusai Seiji, no. 154, December 2008, p. 88.

Boeicho, Boeicho Secchiho Nado o Ichibu o Kaisei Suru Horitsuan Kankei Shiryo (Tokyo: Boeicho, 2005), http://law.egov.go.jp/htmldata/S29/S29HO164.html.

‘Boei Naikyoku mo Kyuyuryo Minshu “Naikyoku Inpei” Tsuikyu’, Asahi Shimbun, 27 October 2007, http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/1026/TKY200710260363.html.

‘Seifukugumi no Kokkai Toben Kento Bunmin Tosei Meguri Giron’, ibid., 29 October 2007, http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/1026/ TKY200710260364.html.

Shigeru Ishiba, ‘Ishiba Boeisho no Soshiki no Arikata ni Tsuite no Iken Gaiyo’, 13 February 2008, http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/bouei/dai5/pdf/siryou3.pdf.

‘Boeisho Saihen Koso de Hamon Sebirugumi Seifukugumi no Togo Hakaru Daijin’, Asahi Shimbun, 13 February 2008, http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0212/TKY200802120290.html.

‘Boeisho ni Saiko Ishi Kettei Kikan, Sebirogumi Seifukugumi ga Ittai de Kyogi’, Yomiuri Shimbun, 25 April 2008, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20080425-OYT1T00009.htm.

Jiyu Minshuto Seimu Chosakai Boeisho Kaikaku Shoiinkai, Teigen: Boeisho Kaikaku, 24 April 2008, http://www.jimin.jp/jimin/seisaku/2008/pdf/seisaku-008.pdf.

Boeisho Kaikaku Kaigi, Hokokusho: Fuyoji no Bunseki to Kaikaku Hokosei, 15 July 2008, http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/bouei/dai11/pdf/siryou.pdf, p. 40.

Ibid., pp. 41–5.

‘Boeisho Saisei: Chukan Shireibu Nado Shoten ni’, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 29 July 2008, p. 2.

Minister's Secretariat, Ministry of Defense, Policy Planning and Evaluation Division, ‘Reform of the Ministry of Defense’, January 2009, http://www.mod.go.jp/e/d_policy/reform/pdf/reform200902.pdf, p. 2.

Boeisho, 22nen ni Okeru Boeisho Soshiki Kaikaku ni Kansuru Kihon Kangaekata, 22 December 2008, http://www.mod.go.jp/j/news/kaikaku/20081222b.pdf.

Toshio Tamogami, ‘Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?’, May 2008, http://www.apa.co.jp/book_report/images/2008jyusyou_saiyuusyu_english.pdf.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Japan, ‘Statement by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the War's End, 15 August 1995’, http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/press/pm/murayama/9508.html.

‘Sengo Kyoiku de Shiki Teika: Hanron Fusatsu Nara Kitachosen’, Mainichi Shimbun, 4 November 2008, p. 2.

‘Tamogami Behind 78 Other ASDF Essay Entries’, Japan Times Online, 7 November 2008, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20081107a1.html; ‘Essay Judges Defend Tamogami’, ibid., 9 December 2008, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20081209a3.html.

‘Masuda Defends “Hawkish” Classes’, ibid., 21 November 2008, http://www.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20081121a4.html.

‘Kujishi de mo “Shinryaku Uso”‘, Asahi Shimbun, 3 November 2008, p. 31.

‘Kubakucho Kaishoku, Jusho Happyo Tojitsu ni Shusho ga Shiji’, Yomiuri Shimbun, 11 November 2008, http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/news/20081111-OYT1T0014.htm.

Kokkai Sangiin Kaigiroku Gaiko Boei Iinkai, 6go, 11 November 2008, p. 70, available at http://kokkai.ndl.go.jp; ‘Tamogami Maekubakucho ga Shiji Hitei “Sureba 1000nin Toko”‘, Asahi Shimbun, 11 November 2008, http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/1111/TKY200811110133.html.

‘Maekubakucho, Shusho “Kiwamete Futekisetsu” Sanin Gaiko Boei I’, ibid., http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/1113/TKY200811130125.html.

‘SDF's Rise in ‘90s Behind Tamogami's Challenge’, Japan Times, 28 November 2008, http://www.japantimes.co.jo/print/nn20081128f1.html.

Soichiro Tahara, ‘The Tamogami Debacle: Dismissal of a Japanese General and the Danger of Indignation’, Japan Focus, 21 November 2008, http://www.japanfocus.org/_Tahara_Soichiro__H_Bix/2958.

Boeisho Kaikaku Kaigi, 12kai Giji Yoshi, 25 December 2008, http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/bouei/dai12/pdf/12gijiyousi.pdf, p. 2.