Securing Japan

J. Samuels Richard

Description

For the past sixty years, the U.S. government has assumed that Japan's security policies would reinforce American interests in Asia. The political and military profile of Asia is changing rapidly, however. Korea's nuclear program, China's rise, and the relative decline of U.S. power have commanded strategic review in Tokyo just as these matters have in Washington. What is the next step for Japan's security policy? Will confluence with U.S. interests-and the alliance-survive intact? Will the policy be transformed? Or will Japan become more autonomous?Richard J. Samuels demonstrates that over the last decade, a revisionist group of Japanese policymakers has consolidated power. The Koizumi government of the early 2000s took bold steps to position Japan's military to play a global security role. It left its successor, the Abe government, to further define and legitimate Japan's new grand strategy, a project well under way-and vigorously contested both at home and in the region. Securing Japan begins by tracing the history of Japan's grand strategy-from the Meiji rulers, who recognized the intimate connection between economic success and military advance, to the Konoye consensus that led to Japan's defeat in World War II and the postwar compact with the United States.Samuels shows how the ideological connections across these wars and agreements help explain today's debate. He then explores Japan's recent strategic choices, arguing that Japan will ultimately strike a balance between national strength and national autonomy, a position that will allow it to exist securely without being either too dependent on the United States or too vulnerable to threats from China. Samuels's insights into Japanese history, society, and politics have been honed over a distinguished career and enriched by interviews with policymakers and original archival research. Securing Japan is a definitive assessment of Japanese security policy and its implications for the future of East Asia.

Sujets

• International relations
• History of Asia
• Japan

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801459221
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Securing Japan

Other books by Richard J. Samuels

Machiavelli’s Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan

“Rich Nation, Strong Army”: National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan

The Business of the Japanese State: Energy Markets in Comparative and Historical Perspective

The Politics of Regional Policy in Japan

Securing Japan Tokyo’sGrandStrategy andtheFutureofEastAsia

Ri c h a r dS J . a m u e l s

Cornell University Press IthacaandLondon

A volume in the series CornellStudiesinSecurityAffairs edited by Robert J. Art, Robert Jervis, and Stephen M. Walt

Copyright ©2007by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,512East State Street, Ithaca, New York14850.

First published2007by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Samuels, Richard J.  Securing Japan : Tokyo’s grand strategy and the future of East Asia / Richard J. Samuels.  p. cm. —(Cornell studies in security affairs)  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN978-0-8014-4612-2(cloth : alk. paper) 1. National security—Japan.2. Japan—Military policy.3. Japan—Foreign relations—1945–4. East Asia—Foreign relations. I. Title. II. Series.

 UA845.S3282007 355’.033052—dc222007010999

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled, totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwoodfibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing10987654321

for Roger, with thanks

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction: Understanding Japan’s Grand Strategy

PartI. HistoricalContext 1Grand Strategies: Connecting the Ideological Dots. Japan’s 2. Baking the Pacifist Loaf

PartII. A WorldinFlux 3Change to Change. The 4. Whither the Yoshida Doctrine? 5. The Discourse

PartIII. ThreatsandResponses 6. The New Threat Environment 7(and Making) Threats. Meeting

Conclusion: Japan’s Evolving Grand Strategy Notes References Index

[vii]

ix

1

13 38

63 86 109

135 158

185 211 249 273

Acknowledgments

Each year, a number of midcareer Japanese government offi cials and businesspersons sent by their ministries andfirms to improve their English and make connections come to study here at MIT. Some are unsure how to intervene in seminar discussions and remain quiet, but most enhance these discussions considerably with their contributions. One foreign ministry of- ficial particularly stands out in my memory. About a decade ago, in the mid-1990s, she interrupted my opening day introductory lecture to a class on Japanese security policy and insisted that I stop referring to a “Japanese military.” Japan, ater all, had only a “Self-Defense Force.” This was not the first time I had been confronted by such self-deception, but it was thefirst time it had been offered up in my own classroom. What a wonderful teach- ing opportunity! I set aside my lecture notes and focused the diplomat’s aĴention on what Japan’s $45billion defense budget actually was buying. Then I focused the aĴention of the non-Japanese in the class on how fright- fully defensive Japanese officials could be about such maĴers. What seemed to some as Japanese quibbling over trifles was actually the warp and woof of Japan’s security debate. Thanks to the diplomat’s intervention, we all learned something important about Japanese security. Just as important, though, was a parallel intervention four years later in the opening session of the same course, when another Japanese student, a retired Maritime Self- Defense Forceflag officer, proudly introduced himself to the class as an “admiral of the Japanese navy.” Again, I had to set aside the lecture notes, but this time the unplanned lesson focused on how much had changed in four years! And indeed, while much had changed, the willingness of Japanese gov- ernment officials, journalists, politicians, and intellectuals to chat has not. I am grateful to each of more than three dozen government offia cials ffi liated [ix]