Balancing Threat Perceptions and Strategic Priorities: Japan’s Post-war Defence Policy

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolution of Japan's defence policy in relation to changes in threat perceptions throughout the Cold War, and into the initial years of the post-Cold War period. It argues that in the Cold War, Japan's threat perceptions evolved in nature, prompting a transformation of the purpose of Japan's military apparatus but not the acceleration of the pace of rearmament. The chapter further examines how, by the end of the 1980s, the evolution of Japan's strategic priorities required the country to reconsider its defence posture. Since the reconstitution of its military forces, Japan had refrained from dispatching men and assets overseas, with one exception during the occupation period, when Japanese minesweepers were sent to support United Nations forces fighting on the Korean peninsula. After the Cold War ended, the involvement in world affairs and international security entered the grammar of Japan's defence planners. Keywords:Cold War; Japan; post-war defence policy; threat perceptions