Chapter Ten: The energy problem and alliance systems: Japan

Abstract

Strategic links between Japan and Europe during the Cold War were limited. During this period the IISS helped bridge the gap between the two, exposing its membership base to the international affairs of Asia and Japan and providing Japanses scholars, strategists and diplomats with a platform from which to amplify their voices in the West. Analyses by these experts often appeared in IISS publications, but the Institute also gained key insights through its well-established conferences and lecture series. These initiatives illuminated Japanese strategic thinking and perspectives on contemporary critical issues in Japan’s and Asia’s foreign, security and defence policy.

This Adelphi book, through its collection of earlier analysis, helps the reader to understand the evolution of Japanese strategic thought from the 1960s until today, and shines a light on the continuities and changes in this thinking. New, original analysis of the material seeks to identify areas where such thinking was prescient and remains relevant to the contemporary strategic environment, and other areas where predictions failed or assumptions were proved wrong. These new essays were also informed by interviews of Japanese senior scholars and diplomats who spent time with the IISS. This book seeks to frame, educate and guide strategic thinking on the most pressing issues of today, both in and outside Japan and Asia, and will be of great interest to analysts, practitioners and students of international affairs.

Notes

1 Weekly Economist (Japanese), 11 December 1973.

2 Monthly Economist (Japanese), January 1974.

3 Melvin Laird, Final Report to the Congress of the Secretary of Defense, 8 January 1973, p. 24.

4 United States Foreign Policy for the 1970s (Tokyo: USIS Special Report, 3 May 1973), p. 103.

5 Takashi Yasukawa, Ambassador to Washington, in an interview with Sankei Shimbun, 16 June 1973, p. 2.

6 Editorial, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 20 August 1974.

7 Sogo Energy Chosa-kai (Comprehensive Energy Study Committee), Chukan Torimatone (Interim Report) (Comprehensive Subcommittee, 25 July 1974).

8 Reference to the text of the 15 July agreement on Co-operation in the Field of Energy Research and Development.

9 Two obstacles to this are a shortage of locations and the cost: 20 million sq. metres of land and about $5,000 million will be needed to stockpile an extra 30 days’ reserves.

10 ‘Siberian Development – Japan’s Sole Participation Hoped’, The Asahi Evening News, 14 August 1974.

11 CESC Interim Report, op. cit., p. 14.

12 Anzen-Hysho (National Security), 1969 ed., pp. 240–84. Published annually by Asagumo Shimbun (a Japanese Stars and Stripes).

13 Naomi Nishimura, ‘My Philosophy of Self-Defense – on the Strategy of Limited Response’, speech at the Tokyo Foreign Correspondents’ Club, 11 October 1971.