Japan's Self-Defense Forces: Towards a Normal Military

Abstract

The Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are one of the variables of the distinctly pacifist security policy Japan has followed ever since the end of the war. Japan's ongoing ‘normalisation’ involves an enhancement of the role and functions of these forces. Although the SDF's role has considerably increased in the past decade, it cannot be characterised as Japan's remilitarisation because of strong domestic and external checks. The shift in the SDF's role has to be seen in the larger context of fundamental changes in regional security in East Asia and Tokyo's intent to broaden its regional and global security profile.

Arpita Mathur is Associate Fellow at IDSA.

Notes

¹ William Horsley and Roger Buckley, Nippon: New Superpower Japan Since 1945, BBC Books, London, 1990, p. 137.

² Article 9 of the Constitution reads: (1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. (emphasis added) The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

³ The earlier draft reads as: ‘War as a sovereign right of the nation is abolished. Japan renounces it as an instrumentality for settling its disputes and even for preserving its own security … No Japanese Army, Navy and Air Force will ever be authorized and no rights of belligerency will ever be conferred upon any Japanese force’. From Euan Graham, Japan's Sea Lane Security, 1940–2004: A Matter of Life and Death? Routledge, London, 2006, p. 95.

⁴ Rust Deming, ‘Japan's Constitution and Defense Policy: Entering a New Era?’ Strategic Forum (213), Institute for National Strategic Studies, 2004, p. 1, at http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/SF213/SF213_Final.pdf (Accessed July 27, 2007).

⁵ For further details, see ‘Constitution of Japan and Right of Self Defense’ from official website of Japan's Ministry of Defense http://www.mod.go.jp/e/d_policy/dp01.html (Accessed October 5, 2007).

⁶ ‘Right of Collective Self-Defense,’ Government View on Purport of Article 9 of the Constitution at http://www.mod.go.jp/e/d-policy/dp01.html (Accessed October 5, 2007) Collective Self-Defense—chapter7.htm remains add (Accessed October 5, 2007).

⁷ For further details, see, Sorimachi Katsuo, ‘Legal Basis for Japan's Ability to Exercise the Right of Collective Self-Defense’, 21st Century Shape of Japan Series, No. 1, at http://www.lec-jp.com/speaks/info_001.html (Accessed July 27, 2007).

⁸ From text of National Defense Program Guideline for FY 2005 and After.

⁹ ‘Japan's New Defense Guidelines Raises Concerns About China’, Kyodo News, November 17, 2004, at http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20041117013 (Accessed November 17, 2007).

¹⁰ ‘First Strike Permitted if Attack Imminent: Abe Hitting Missile Bases Seen as Self-Defense’, The Japan Times, July 11, 2006 at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060711a1.html

¹¹ ‘Survey: 81% say Threat from North Korea Stronger’, The Yomiuri Shimbun, at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20061017TDY01004.htm (Accessed October 17, 2006).

¹² Richard L. Armitage and Joseph S. Nye, The US-Japan Alliance: Getting Asia Right Through 2020, February 2007, pp. 15–20.

¹³ Text of the Joint Statement US-Japan Security Consultative Committee, Washington DC, 19 February 2005 from official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan, at http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/n-america/us/security/sec/joint0502.html (Accessed October 5, 2007).

¹⁴ ‘Japan, US Upgrading Joint Operation Plan for Military Emergencies’, The Asahi Shimbun, January 4, 2007, at http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200701040285.html

¹⁵ National Defense Program Guideline, no. 8, p. 6.

¹⁶ ‘US Urges Japan to OK Use of Force with Missile Defense Shield’, Kyodo News, May 16, 2007, at http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=314804. (Accessed May 16, 2007).

¹⁷ ‘US calls on Japan to Shield it from Missiles’, The Japan Times, May 17, 2007, at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070517a2.html (Accessed May 17, 2007).

¹⁸ While responding to a question in the Upper House Ad Hoc Committee on Military Emergency Legislation of the Diet, Koizumi stated that he thought the SDF were in fact ‘substantially a military organisation and will ultimately ‘receive the honor and status they deserve in the Constitution’. Editorial: ‘Calling the SDF Military’, The Asahi Shimbun, May 22, 2003, at http://www.asahi.com/english/op-ed/K2003052300204.html.

¹⁹ ‘Koizumi Speaks out on his Constitutional Pet Peeves’, The Asahi Shimbun, August 28, 2003, at http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/K2003082800306.html.

²⁰ ‘New Role Envisioned for Military in Japan’, International Herald Tribune, October 30, 2005, at http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/30/news/japan.php.

²¹ ‘Abe Seeks Constitutional Revision for Collective Self-Defense’, Kyodo News, September 5, 2006, at http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fsStory/index.php?storyid=269221.

²² ‘LDP Panel: Call SDF a Military’, Yomiuri Shimbun, April 15, 2004, at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm Also read ‘LDP wants to Legalize SDF by Amending Constitution’, The Japan Times, April 25, 2003, at http://www.japantimes.com/cgi.

²³ Ibid.

²⁴ ‘Okada Eyes SDF Force on UN Basis’, The Asahi Shimbun, July 30, 2004, at http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/TKY200407300136.html.

²⁵ Policy Speech by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the 165th Session of the Diet’, Office of the Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, September 29, 2006, at http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/abespeech/2006/09/29speech_e.html (Accessed October 5, 2007).

²⁶ ‘Powell: Article 9 Review Necessary for UN Seat’, The Asahi Shimbun, August 18, 2004, at http://www.asahi.com/english/world/TKY200408250175.html

²⁷ Christopher W. Hughes, Japan's Security Agenda: Military, Economic and Environmental Dimensions, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder, CO, USA, 2004, pp. 161–162.

²⁸ International Peace Cooperation Law, 2001 from Defense of Japan 2003, Japan Defense Agency, Tokyo, p. 458.

²⁹ For details, refer to the Basic Plan Regarding Response Measures Based on the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law, Cabinet Decision of November 16, 2001, at http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/policy/2001/anti-terrorism/1116keikaku_e.html

³⁰ Refer to Okamoto Yukio, ‘Across to the Indian Ocean: Japanese Aid to Afghanistan,’ Gaiko Forum, 2 (3), Fall 2002, pp. 13–22.

³¹ ‘Japan's Cabinet OKs 2-year extension of airlift operations in Iraq’, Kyodo News, March 30, 2007 at http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=306497

³² ‘SDF to Have Autonomy in Iraqi Mission/Will be Allowed to Reject Requests from International Force’, Yomiuri Shimbun, June 16, 2004 at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index

³³ ‘Cabinet Seals Mission in Iraq’, The Asahi Shimbun, June 19, 2004, at http://www.asahi.com/english/politics/TKY200406190174.html

³⁴ National Defense Program Guideline, no. 8.

³⁵ Defense of Japan, 2006 from Japan's Ministry of Defense website http://www.mod.gp.jp/e/publ/w_paper/index.html (Accessed October 5, 2007)

³⁶ Ibid.

³⁷ For more details, see, ‘Editorial: Upgrading SDFs Overseas Activities’, The Japan Times, December 5, 2006, at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20061205a1.html

³⁸ For Handbook on the Research Report on the Constitution of Japan, Research Commission on the Constitution, House of Councillors, Japan 2005, see at http://www.sangiin.go.jp/eng/report/index.htm. Final Report of the Research Commission on the Constitution, see The House of Representatives, April 2005 at http://www.shugiin.go.jp/index.nsf/html/index_e_kenpou.htm

³⁹ ‘Abe Calls for a ‘Bold Review’ of Japanese Constitution’, International Herald Tribune, May 3, 2007, at http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/03/news/japan.php. (Accessed on May 4, 2007)

⁴⁰ For more details, see Christopher W. Hughes, ‘Why Japan Could Revise Its Constitution and What it Would Mean for Japanese Security Policy’, Orbis, 50(4), 2006, p. 736.

⁴¹ Ibid., p. 737.

⁴² New Komeito Party, ‘Key Policy Initiatives: Chapter 5: Strategies for International Peace Building—Nation Security and Crisis Management System’ November 4, 2002, at http://www.komei.or.jp/en/policy/11.html

⁴³ Ichiro Ozawa, ‘My Basic Policies: Toward a Fair Society and a Country of Coexistence’ September 11, 2006 at http://www.dpj.or.jp/english/policy/mybasic2.html

⁴⁴ For more on these proposals, read Mayumi Itoh, ‘Japanese Constitutional Revision: A Neo-Liberal Proposal for Article 9 in Comparative Perspective’, Asian Survey, 41(2) /2001, pp. 310–327.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ Ichiro Ozawa, Blueprint for a New Japan: The Rethinking of a Nation, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1994, pp. 106–108.

⁴⁷ Mayumi Itoh, no. 44, pp. 316–7.

⁴⁸ The report calls on Japan to respond to new threats and formulate an independent defense strategy. It further calls for revision of Article 9 and specification of SDF as a military force. It also suggests that Japan should find a way to exercise the right of collective self-defense and clarify the modalities in which this right can be exercised in the fundamental law on national security.

⁴⁹ ‘Business Groups Seek Reform of Constitution’, The Yomiuri Shimbun, January 4, 2005, at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm

⁵⁰ Public Opinion Survey on the SDF and Defense Issues, The Government Public Information Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, February 2006, from Defense of Japan, 2006, Reference 64, pp. 543–546 at http://www.mod.gp.jp/e/publ/w_paper/pdf/2006/7-1-3.pdf (Accessed October 5, 2007).

⁵¹ ‘Public Demanding Constitutional Revision’, The Yomiuri Shimbun, April 8, 2005, at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm

⁵² Nicholas Szechenyi, A Turning Point for Japan's Self-Defense Forces, The Washington Quarterly, 29(4), 2006, pp. 145–146.

⁵³ ‘The TMD System is Stirring Up Trouble in East Asia’, Renmin Ribao, August 27, 1999, p. 2, carried in FBIS-CHI (Web Version, Article Id: FTS 19990903000003) from Jian Yang, China's Security Strategy Towards Japan: Perceptions, Policies and Prospects, Working Paper, No. 17/01, Centre for Strategic Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 2001, at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/css/docs/Working_Papers/WP17.pdf (Accessed May 30, 2007).

⁵⁴ Ibid.

⁵⁵ ‘China Calls on Japan to Stick to Peaceful Development Path’, Xinhua News, May 15, 2007 at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007–05/15/content_6103637.html (Accessed June 6, 2007)

⁵⁶ ‘Japan's Defense Debate Stirs Concern’, BBC News, November 19, 2004, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4025805.stm (Accessed June 5, 2007).

⁵⁷ ‘DPRK Accuses Japan of Retrogressively Revising Constitution’, Xinhua News, May 5, 2007, at http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007–05/05/content_6061500.htm (Accessed June 6, 2007).

⁵⁸ The Constitution states that amendments and changes to the top law can be made by a two-thirds majority of both Houses of the Diet and the simple majority in a national referendum.

⁵⁹ ‘79 Percent Say Minimum Voter Turnout Needed for National Referendum’, The Asahi Shimbun, April 17, 2007 at http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200704160315.html (Accessed April 17, 2007).

⁶⁰ ‘78% say Article 9 Has Helped Keep Japan Peace’, The Asahi Shimbun, May 3, 2007, at http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200705030084.html. (Accessed May 3, 2007)

⁶¹ For this and more details, see ‘Collective Self-Defense Panel to Study Four Scenarios’, The Asahi Shimbun, April 28, 2007, at http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200704280115.html (Accessed May 1, 2007).

⁶² Statistics revealed by the 2007 White Paper on Aging Society estimates that the percentage of people aged 65 years and above would almost double from 20.1 per cent in 2005 to more than 40 per cent in 2055. ‘Japan to Become “Unprecedented” Aging Society: 2007 White Paper’, Kyodo News, June 8, 2007, at http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=319325.