Japan's security debate: Uncovering the political

Abstract

Abstract International and domestic pressures on Japan to re‐assess the relevance of its strict adherence to non‐belligerence have recendy intensified. In a context of declining American power, Japan is being urged to assume a new role in world security management, centred on permanent membership of the UN Security Council. This paper explores the politics of such a change in role. Emerging neo‐nadonalist forces in Japan have seen participation in UN peacekeeping, that is in collective security, as a means of regaining Japan's full military sovereignty. Underlying this is a political objective: putting Japan‐United States security relations on a more equal footing. An attempt is made to assess neo‐nationalism's security agenda and the political resources the movement has been able to muster in support of this agenda. The paper concludes that neo‐nationalism's UN peace pretensions are fatally flawed by a continued commitment to hegemonic politics. The possibility that neo‐nationalism will bring a more inde...