The Development of Japanese Security Policy: A Long-Term Defensive Strategy

Abstract

In a speech delivered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., in February 2013, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe confidently declared that is back.1 This was in reference to Abe's goal of reviving Japan's moribund economy and restoring the country's place in the international community as a responsible contributor to global affairs. The reactions to Japan's return have been both positive and negative. While Abe's push to implement a robust economic policy termed has been relatively positively received, even though doubts about its success have increasingly dominated the debates in Japan and beyond, Abe's actions in the political and security domains have attracted considerable negative attention.2 This essay focuses on this latter area and attempts to unpack the implications of the expansion of Japan's security policy for the Asia-Pacific. This issue is important because Abe's victory in the December 2014 elections will certainly result in the continued growth of Japanese security policy despite the uncertain growth of the country's economy under the Abenomics program.Since starting his second tenure as prime minister in December 2012, Abe and his team have taken significant steps to expand Japanese security policy. For the first time, a National Security Strategy document was published, and it was introduced together with an updated National Defense Program Guidelines that outlined five- and ten-year targets for Japan's defense policy.3 The strategy in these documents called for the following: augmenting Japanese naval capability through the expansion of the submarine fleet and destroyer-class ships, including additional Aegis destroyers; strengthening Japanese air patrol and surveillance capabilities through the acquisition of additional early warning aircraft and Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles; strengthening aerial refueling and transport aircraft; boosting the country's air force capabilities with the F-35A Joint Strike Fighters; and finally creating an amphibious island defense force. To complement Japan's force modernization, Japan and the United States decided to revise the Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation for the first time since 1997. When passed in 2015, the defense guidelines will strengthen bilateral defense cooperation in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) for maritime security around Japan; cyberdefense; missile defense; and United Nations peacekeeping. In addition, the revised guidelines call for an expansion of joint military drills and the sharing of military installations in Japan.4 As revealed in the documents, these measures will be supported by an increase in the Japanese defense budget, reversing an eleven-year trend of decline.Trends in Japanese domestic politics further complicated events in the security domain. Most provocatively, Abe and his cabinet moved to eliminate constraints that prevented Japan from pursuing an activist security policy, including through the decision to reinterpret the Japanese constitution to permit collective self-defense roles for the Japanese military and the lifting of restrictions on arms exports. The Abe government also displayed worrying tendencies related to the unresolved historical legacy of Japan's imperial past. Following attempts by the government to revise the Murayama and Kono statements, many concluded that Abe was questioning Japan's practice of using sex slaves (so-called comfort women) during World War II and perhaps even reversing Japan's apology for its behavior in the events leading up to the war. The level of suspicion toward Japan reached its peak in December 2013 when Abe became the first prime minister in seven years to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, despite the lack of domestic pressure for such a visit.The developments in Japan described above were received negatively by Beijing and Seoul. Both capitals have expressed anger, labelled Abe's actions as dangerous, and even likened Japan to the villain Voldemort in the Harry Potter series. …