Japanese domestic politics and security cooperation with Australia: the limits of ‘normalisation’

Abstract

Security cooperation between Japan and Australia over the last several decades has been largely underpinned by common factors and interests in the international system. As with most bilateral relationships, however, cooperation has also been encouraged by domestic forces in both countries. The prevailing forces that characterised Japanese foreign policy in the post-war era were the politically and constitutionally entrenched pacifist norm, the powerful position of the bureaucracy relative to a powerful yet fragmented bureaucracy coupled with weak political leadership, and exceptional longevity of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government during their tenure in power from 1955 to 2009. These characteristic features of Japanese foreign policy also had particular implications for Australia-Japan relations. Concordantly, evolutions in Japanese politics since the end of the cold war have altered the environment in which policy towards Australia and the region is formulated. This article examines how Australia-Japan security cooperation has been affected by the erosion of intense pacifism towards ‘normalisation’, the assertion of greater power and leadership of the executive over the bureaucracy, and the historic defeat of the LDP government in 2009 leading to the ascension of the Democratic Party of Japan. It concludes that although changes in Japanese politics have not significantly challenged or bolstered security cooperation between Japan and Australia, those changes have proven too limited to significantly strengthen Japan's position in an increasingly volatile region.