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Japanese leaders are \u2018rushing to find viable alternatives for its own security and defense\u2019. | Credit: Illustration by Stephen P. Kelly \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Japan wrote pacifism into its constitution and culture following World War II, but that era may be coming to an end. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last week moved to allow arms sales to foreign countries, signaling a pivot toward a more hawkish stance.<\/p>\n
Many Japanese felt pride in the country\u2019s postwar commitment to \u201cnever resort to force to settle international disputes,\u201d said The Wall Street Journal<\/a>. Pacifism \u201chas been our moral compass after the tragedy,\u201d 87-year-old Michiko Yagi said to the outlet. But growing tensions with China<\/a> have sharpened a sense of alarm and increased support for Takaichi\u2019s efforts to build the country\u2019s defenses. Japan cannot expect the U.S. to come to its defense \u201cwhen our own people aren\u2019t even defending our own country,\u201d said Nagasaki resident Masashi Kajiyama.<\/p>\n The U.S. focus on Iran<\/a> is a factor in the pivot: The Trump administration moved military assets from Asia to the Middle East to support the war, leaving Japanese leaders \u201crushing to find viable alternatives for its own security and defense,\u201d Keio University\u2019s Michito Tsuruoka said to The New York Times<\/a>. Raising Japan\u2019s defenses is a response to an \u201cincreasingly challenging security environment,\u201d Takaichi said in a social media post.<\/p>\n What did the commentators say?<\/p>\n Japan\u2019s pacifism \u201conce served a purpose,\u201d Kenji Yoshida said at Asia Times<\/a>. Dovishness \u201creassured neighbors\u201d threatened by the country\u2019s former militarism and enabled a near-miraculous economic recovery from World War II. But such stances \u201ccan outlive their usefulness.\u201d Tokyo has long found ways to stretch its supposed constitutional limits, dispatching minesweepers during the 1991 Gulf War and deploying \u201cnon-combat\u201d troops to Iraq during the 2004 invasion. \u201cPublic opinion remains cautious\u201d on such issues, but the time has come for Japan to shed its \u201cunsustainable pacifist illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n The Japanese public is \u201cdivided\u201d on the move to a more hawkish stance, The Japan Times<\/a> said in an editorial. Japanese people retain an \u201cinstinctive concern\u201d about security issues that is a \u201cremnant of the bitter experience of World War II.\u201d But an \u201cincreasingly contested security environment\u201d in Asia requires change. Tokyo must \u201cvalue hard power as a contributor to deterrence\u201d against threats. \u201cIdeally, the provision of defense equipment will prevent conflict, not enable it.\u201d<\/p>\n What next?<\/p>\n Japan has seen a \u201cseeming erosion of pacifist norms\u201d over the past decade, said The Diplomat<\/a>. Mass protests greeted 2015 legislation to allow the country\u2019s military to deploy overseas. But Takaichi\u2019s recent popularity suggests the arrival of a \u201cpost-pacifist\u201d era, giving her \u201cunprecedented authority to expand Japan\u2019s defense ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n Takaichi<\/a> has suggested she will seek \u201cchanges to the pacifist clause\u201d of Japan\u2019s constitution, said The Washington Post<\/a>. But the hints of change have also sparked \u201crare nationwide protests\u201d by Japanese who fear the country might be \u201cdrawn into military conflicts if it drops its constitutional guardrails.\u201d The \u201chollowing out of pacifism\u201d could prompt a backlash from Japan\u2019s neighbors, Hiroshima City University\u2019s Shiro Sato said to the Post, making Japan less safe by \u201cincreasing insecurity and potentially worsening the security environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Japanese…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6163,8,11160,358,8185,11162,11161],"class_list":{"0":"post-13631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-country","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-pacifism","11":"tag-sanae-takaichi","12":"tag-security-environment","13":"tag-the-wall-street-journal","14":"tag-viable-alternatives"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}