Evaluate how domestic and regional factors limited Japan's abilities Research Paper

Evaluate how domestic and regional factors limited Japan's abilities to play more definitive security roles in East Asia. Asse - Research Paper Example There are some signs that this is now changing, but the Japan-US military alliance will continue to be the defining feature of Japan’s foreign policy for the foreseeable future. Article 9 Following the Second World War, Japan officially renounced its right to declare war, which has left the country in a unique situation, somewhat removed from the life of a ‘normal’ nation state. The Japanese military is restricted by Article 9 of its constitution, which states that Japan has forfeited its right as a nation to declare war, and will not recognize force as a valid means of settling disputes between nations. As a result, Japan does not officially keep its armed forces for any purpose except self-defense. Article 9 ends: ‘The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized’. Japan does maintain a large military force, and has one of the world’s largest military budgets, but this is justified as being purely in a defensive capacity, and unt il the past two decades, Japan did not even contribute personnel to peacekeeping missions sanctioned by the United Nations (UN). The defense budget is nearly $50 billion, approximately 1% of Japanese GDP, and it spends a further $2 billion annually on supporting American forces based in Japan1. Japanese forces are controlled tightly by civilian politicians, and the first time they were allowed to operate outside of the country was in a peacekeeping capacity in Cambodia in 1992-3. Article 9 effectively prevents Japan from taking a particularly active military role in international affairs, and for many Japanese, who are broadly pacifist, the horrors of the Second World War remain a powerful reason not to abolish Article 9 from the constitution2. As Kingston put it, ‘The US actually insisted on the insertion of Article 9 in the Japanese Constitution [as part of postwar peace negotiations], but has regretted it ever since’3. The United States would prefer Japan to take a m ore active role in attaining their shared security goals, so that it would not have to shoulder the absolute burden of operations in East Asia, including making considerable provision for Japan’s own defense. Kingston argues that, despite strong popular support for Article 9 – ‘For many Japanese, it is a point of pride that Japan’s Constitution embraces pacifism, a powerful symbolic break with the wartime past and an ongoing guarantee’, it has ‘diminished sway over government security policy’4. As we shall see, Japan has indeed circumvented the provisions of its constitution to deploy its forces abroad in recent years. The Japan-US Alliance Following the Treaty of San Francisco, Japan’s foreign policy has essentially been guided by its close relationship with the United States. Japan has been able to leave international issues to the United States, and concentrated mainly on economic recovery and development, ‘with relative ly little concern (and cost) for its own defense’5. The Alliance has had benefits for the US also. Keen to expand its practical influence right across the Pacific in the aftermath of the Second World War, Japan, as an archipelago right off the Asian mainland, offered an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ from which to pursue this policy. Bases in Japan have helped with deployments against Communist forces in Korea and Vietnam, as well as other conflicts in the region. This alliance is boosted by the large volume and value of trade between the US and Japan.