SOON after the Islamic State’s brutal murder in January of the Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for the country’s “biggest reform” of its military posture since the end of WWII. Abe wants Japan to become a “normal” country again, with the capacity to defend its interests and citizens wherever they are threatened. But how should his government go about it?
Even for the Japanese public that still generally supports their country’s post-war pacifism, the hostage crisis was unsettling, not least because it highlighted Japan’s military weakness. Unlike Jordan, which was able to consider a rescue mission for its own hostage and launch a powerful military response after he was killed, Japan’s constitution left it no options for rescue or retaliation.
Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution, which was adopted in 1947 under US occupation, prohibits the country from maintaining armed forces or using force to settle international conflicts. Though interpretations of Article 9 have liberalized over the years, and Japan now maintains a very capable self-defense force, constitutional constraints continue to impair Japan’s military capabilities and posture considerably.
To be sure, Japan’s treaty alliance with the US provides for its security. But the risks that Japan faces — including an increasingly assertive China, a nuclear North Korea, and an Islamic State that has threatened to murder Japanese citizens abroad — have raised legitimate questions about whether the country needs greater latitude to defend itself.
This could be achieved in several ways. For example, Japan could simply continue to increase the defense budget, reinterpret the existing constitution, and strengthen collective security; the capacity of Japanese special forces could be expanded; or Article 9 could be repealed altogether by a vote in both houses of the Diet, followed by a national referendum. Regardless of the specific route taken, Japan deserves to be able to protect its territory and population, just like any other country.
But any boost in its military capabilities will meet strong opposition, particularly from China and the Koreas, which continue to insist that Japan’s alliance with the US provides it with all the security it needs. Moreover, they argue that Japan has yet to come fully to terms with its colonial and wartime record. Japan has indeed benefited enormously from US protection. But there can be no guarantee that the US will continue to defend Japan’s interests indefinitely, particularly in any clash with China. Questions, justified or not, about America’s ability to retain its dominant position in Asia’s security architecture in the medium to long term — together with the rise of isolationist sentiment within the US — have spurred its regional allies and partners, including stalwart friends like Australia, to hedge their strategic bets. It is only logical that Japan would share such concerns. Likewise, though Japan’s behavior before and during WWII was undeniably atrocious, its record since 1945 — including championing the United Nations and other multilateral institutions and providing guidance and assistance to developing countries — has been exemplary.
Nonetheless, if Japan chooses to move toward military normalization, it must demonstrate more convincingly that it has come to terms with its history — or risk seeing that effort undermined unnecessarily.
©Project Syndicate
