Shinzo Abe's security legislation reform and peacebuilding in Mindanao

ABSTRACT

Recent literature on Japanese foreign policy has focused on analysing the implications of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security legislation reform for the bilateral security alliance relationship with the US amidst a rising China and the right to collective self-defence. Its impact on Japan's multilateral security policy, in particular, peacebuilding, has so far received little attention. In what ways and to what extent does Japan play a peacebuilding role under this change? This article examines key implications of the security legislation reform, along with the renewal of Japan's Official Development Assistance charter, for its peacebuilding efforts. By taking Mindanao, the Philippines, as a case study, it argues that Abe focuses on taking a foreign aid-centred approach while showing little interest in sending Japanese Self-Defence Force. This article provides a counter-narrative to the claim that Japan is taking a more assertive approach to international security. Abe is more risk-averse as far as his approach to peacebuilding is concerned.

KEYWORDS:

• Abe
• security legislation reform
• peacebuilding
• Mindanao
• ODA

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to anonymous referees for the constructive comments. I also wish to thank Professor Sung Chull Kim of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies, Seoul National University, South Korea, for giving me an opportunity to present an earlier version of the article at ‘Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and Democratization in Asia: Experiences and Models,’ 25–26 August 2016. I would also like to thank all the participants at the conference, in particular Dr Peng Er Lam and Dr Gyubin Choi. Also, it was presented at the Asia-Pacific Conference on Security and International Relations 2016 at Osaka University on 9 December 2016. I am thankful to Professor Haruko Satoh for her support during the conference. I also thank Dr Michael Harland and Mr Stephen O'Connor for comments on the earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interests was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I am thankful to Dr Lam for suggesting this point.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tadashi Iwami

Tadashi Iwami is a lecturer of International Relations and Japanese Studies at the Faculty of Contemporary International Studies, the Institute of the Pacific United (IPU), New Zealand. He earned his PhD degree in Politics at the University of Otago. Iwami has published articles in East Asia: An International Quarterly, Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, and Routledge Handbook of Japanese Foreign Policy (edited by Drake University Associate Professor Mary M. McCarthy, 2018). His research interests include Japan's foreign and security policies and East Asia in International Relations.