Chapter Twenty: Rethinking Japan–US relations: security issues

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 Defense of Japan (Tokyo: Defense Agency of Japan, 1993), p. 55.

2 Ibid., p. 57.

3 For example, Gerald Segal, China Changes Shape: Regionalism and Foreign Policy, Adelphi Paper 287 (London: Brassey’s for the IISS, 1994).

4 For an historical review of Japan’s post-Second World War security policy, see Yukio Satoh, The Evolution of Japanese Security Policy, Adelphi Paper 178 (London: IISS, 1982). For recent discussions on the subject, see Francis Fukuyama and Kongdan Oh, The US–Japan Security Relationship After the End of the Cold War (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1993); Norman D. Levin, Mark Sorell and Arthur Alexander, The Wary Warriors: Future Directions in Japanese Security Policies (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1993).

5 For the view of the Japanese government on the SDF and the Constitution, see Defense of Japan, pp. 86–89.

6 Asahi Shinbun, 30 November 1993.

7 Defense of Japan, p. 376.

8 Yomiuri Shinbun, 5 January 1994.

9 Nihon Keizai Shinbun, 5 January 1994.

10 Asahi Shinbun, 4 January 1994.

11 Nihon Keizai Shinbun, 16 January 1994.

12 Asahi Shinbun, 10 December 1993.

13 Public Relations Office, Prime Minister’s Secretariat, ‘Public Opinion Survey on Japan’s Peace and Security’, Asagumo Shinbun, Defense Handbook, 1994, p. 539.

14 Asahi Shinbun, 14 June 1994.

15 Defense of Japan, pp. 94–96.

16 Ichiro Ozawa, Blueprint for a New Japan (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1993), pp. 117–18.

17 See, for example, Kan Nakanishi, ‘Japan–US Security Relations after the End of the Cold War’, Gaiko Forum, no. 65, February 1994.

18 Asahi Shinbun, editorial, 8 April 1994.

19 US Department of Defense, Report on the Allied Contribution to Common Defense, October 1993.

20 For a factual analysis of the AW ACS issue, see Kensuke Ebata, ‘What is AW ACS?’, Sekai Shuho, 20 October 1992.

21 For example, see Hirohito Sano, ‘AWACS Questioning Japan’s Defense Policy’, Asahi Shinbun, 29 October 1993.

22 Defense of Japan, pp. 103–5.

23 Testimony by Richard Solomon, US Assistant Secretary of State, before the East Asia and Pacific SubCommittee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 17 May 1991.

24 For a vivid account of the FS-X issue, see Ryuichi Teshima, Strike at Japan FS-X (Tokyo: Shinchosa, 1991).

25 American revisionist views tend to emphasise the danger of technology outflow from the US. See, for example, Fukuyama and Oh, The US–Japan Security Relationship, pp. 53–66.

26 Levin, Sorell and Alexander, The Wary Warriors, pp. 78–87.

27 Statement by Dick Cheney, US Secretary of Defense, before the House of Foreign Relations Committee, 3 May 1989.

28 Teshima, Strike at Japan FS-X, pp. 191–93.

29 Statement by Dick Cheney, 3 May 1989.

30 Testimony by Charles R. Lason, Commander-in-Chief, US Pacific Command, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, 21 April 1993.

31 Address by Prime Minister Miyazawa at the National Press Club, Washington DC, 2 July 1992.

32 For Japan’s perspective on Asia– Pacific security, see, for example, Yukio Satoh, ‘Towards the Watershed of 1995: Asia–Pacific Security’, Gaiko Forum, no. 64, January 1994.

33 See Samuel P. Huntington, ‘The Clash of Civilizations’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 72, no. 3, Summer 1993.

34 Yoichi Funabashi, ‘The Asianisation of Asia’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 72, no. 5, November/December 1993.

35 See, for example, the debates in ‘Let’s Speak From an Asian Perspective’, Gaiko Forum, no. 64, January 1994.

36 Former Prime Minister Lee’s keynote speech at the symposium sponsored by the Committee for Japan of the 21st Century, reprinted in Asahi Shinbun, 1 November 1993.

37 Former Prime Minister Miyazawa’s speech, reprinted in ibid.