The Changing Landscape of Japanese Security Policy: A Special Virtual Issue from The Journal of Japanese Studies
It has been a while since a Japanese prime minister had Takaichi Sanae’s power to speak for the nation and to legislate with conviction. She enjoys the support of over 90 percent of the younger generation. For scholars and critics who have consistently pointed out the persistent gender inequality across Japanese society and the pronounced sexism prevalent in its political class, there is the added irony of that power being embodied by the first female leader of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party. Her official platform claims to be committed to creating environments where women do not give up their careers due to caregiving responsibilities. Takaichi has also been characterized as populist, hawkish, anti-women, a feminist conservative, a gender decoy, and an honorary male. Now, the Prime Minister’s ongoing moves to revise security documents will in all likelihood dramatically reshape defense spending, nuclear policy, artificial intelligence warfare, space regulations, submarines and Japan’s strategies towards friends and potential foes.
US-based observers may be inclined to view these moves primarily or exclusively in the context of present-day pressures largely generated by the governments of China and the United States. Yet, a longer durée lens reveals that the Prime Minister is in many ways driven by and spinning forth transformations in public opinion and policy that have been ongoing for a while albeit at an exacerbated pace and with unusual confidence. These concern a number of critical issues: In addition to broad debates about the military, security, and risk, a dwindling number of protectors and defenders of the constitution’s Article 9 that prohibits Japan from going to war seems less likely than ever before to succeed at preventing its revision. Discussions of Japan’s global role have expanded to a wider range of international contexts. And, the make-up and capabilities of the Self-Defense Forces are in flux at the very moment when the shrinking number of willing and eligible male recruits have prompted a vigorous attempt to recruit more women.
The Journal of Japanese Studies has regularly covered these developments, publishing essays by a range of scholars that address the complex specificities in a changing world long before the present moment. From the details of Japan’s radical military trajectory to the foreign policy legacy of the Abe government, from Japan’s pacifist identity to the contested notion of collective self-defense as well as the normalization and management of violence in Japan’s armed forces, this virtual issue offers free access to a broad spectrum of articles that provide a comprehensive source for readers seeking to know more.
For more articles on these and related topics we invite you to search The Journal of Japanese Studies’ available archive.
Christopher W. Hughes
Japan Transformed? The Foreign Policy Legacy of the Abe Government
Adam P. Liff, Phillip Y. Lipscy
The Making of Postwar Japan: A Speculative Essay
Kenneth B. Pyle
Pacifist Identity, Civics Textbooks, and the Opposition to Japan’s Security Legislation
Linus Hagström, Erik Isaksson
Japan’s Strategic Trajectory and Collective Self-Defense: Essential Continuity or Radical Shift?
Christopher W. Hughes
Christopher W. Hughes
Securing Japan: The Current Discourse
Richard J. Samuels
“Self-responsibility” and the Nature of the Postwar Japanese State: Risk through the Looking Glass
Glenn D. Hook, Takeda Hiroko
"Now We Show It All!" Normalization and the Management of Violence in Japan's Armed Forces
Sabine Frühstück, Ben-Ari, Eyal
The Journal of Japanese Studies is the most influential journal dealing with research on Japan available in the English language. Since 1974, it has published the results of scholarly research on Japan in a wide variety of social science and humanities disciplines, as well as translations of articles from Japanese and substantive book reviews.