JAPANESE POST-COLD WAR NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY
This research paper examines the policy alternatives facing Japan as it seeks to redefine its national security policy in the post-cold war environment and analyzes the factors which have in the past and may in the future influence its direction. Since the end of World War II, Japan has become an economic superpower, but its physical security as a nation has been largely dependent on the protection of American military power. Recently, Japan has become more assertive in world affairs and has strengthened its own military capabilities. The domestic economic difficulties and political instability of the 1990s have led to a period of strategic indecision in Japan. The future direction of Japanese national security policy will be affected by a number of factors, the most important of which are Japanese traditions, Japan's relationship with the People's Republic of China, its energy dependence and the evolution of the Japanese political system.
Post-War Strategic Dependence of Japan on the United States
Prostrate after its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan had little choice but to accommodate itself to American national security policy in the Western Pacific. Under the American occupation (1945-1951), Japan adopted a new constitution in 1947 under Article 9 of which Japan pledged "to forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." The militarists, who had dominated Japanese politics before and during the war, were discredited, purged from office and stripped of all their powers under the constitution. The Emperor was retained as Head of State but no longer had no real power. A parliamentary democracy was established. In fact, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in alliance with big business dominated Japanese politics until 1993.
Under the terms of the 1951 Peace Tre...