Stress Test for the U.S.-Japan Alliance under the Democratic Party of Japan

Abstract

The U.S.-Japan security alliance faced major challenges when the liberal Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) replaced the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as ruling party in 2009. This paper traces the evolution of the DPJ’s alliance management over the last three years from brash idealism to sober pragmatism as the party was forced to discard campaign promises to “equalize” and “reassess” the alliance, and came to realize that the changing security environment required a stronger alliance and not a diminished one. A major turning point was the unprecedented massive joint cooperation by U.S. and Japanese troops to respond to the 2011 earthquake disaster. The paper concludes that the alliance is as operationally strong now as it was under the LDP, but that the same problems exist, too, particularly the inability to resolve contentious issues regarding U.S. bases in Okinawa.