Handbook of Japanese Security

Japan has risen in stature to become an important player not only in the Western Pacific, but the wider Indo-Pacific. From a defeated nation that adopted a pacifist constitution and demilitarization, Japan has been provoked by unwelcomed external events to ensure its security. It has faced a challenging security environment and specific threats that have transformed its domestic politics and given rise to debates about the relevance of its pacifist constitution. North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, and China's pressure in the maritime Southwest and the South China Sea, as well as its belligerence over Taiwan, have raised Japanese fears of instability and conflict. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has alarmed Japan that China would similarly resort to force. This present volume includes chapters by experts, Japanese as well as non-Japanese, who examine these issues and how Japan responds to a more threatening security environment while managing its domestic politics. They discuss the debate about the pacifist constitution, the alliance with the US, Japan's Quad partners, India and Australia and how Japan moves to maintain and protect a free and open regional and international order from which it has benefited.

Leszek Buszynski is an Honorary Professor with the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University, Canberra Australia. He has written extensively on Asia Pacific security issues and was co-editor (with Do Thanh Hai) of Maritime Issues and Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and (also with Do Thanh Hai) of The South China Sea: From Regional Maritime Dispute to Geostrategic Competition (Routledge, 2020). He was the sole author of Geopolitics and the Western Pacific: China, Japan and the United States (Routledge, 2019).

Introduction (Leszek Buszynski), Part 1: Overview of Japanese Security, 1. The Development of Japanese Security (Toshiya Takahashi), Part 2: Domestic Sources, 2. Domestic Sources of Japan's Foreign and Security Policy (Benjamin J. Ascione), 3. The Pacifism-Security Nexus in Japan's Security Policy (Rikki Kersten), 4. Political Power Shift and Japan's Foreign/Security Policymaking (Tomohito Shinoda), 5. The Constitution and Defense Policy (Tomoyuki Sasaki), 6. Constitutional Revision under Prime Minister Abe: Incremental Change or Radical Shift? (Lindsay Black), Part 3: Defense and Strategy, 7. The Japan Self-Defense Forces: Developments and Transformation (Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi), 8. The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force: Dream of a Blue Water Navy (Lee Dongkeun), 9. Japan's Maritime Defense Strategy: The MSDF's Operational Concept (Yoji Koda), 10. From Basic Law to the Multi-Domain Defense Force: Ten Year's of Transformation in Japan's Space Program (Paul Kallender), 11. Potential for Japanese Nuclear Armament (Satoshi Machida), 12. Technology Management and Japanese Security Defense (Kousuke Saitou), 13. Japan's Cybersecurity Strategy and Policy (Dai Mochinaga);, Part 4: US Alliance, 14. Japan's Alliance Relations with the US (David Arase), 15. The US-Japan Alliance in an Era of Geopolitical and Domestic Change (Mary M. McCarthy), Part 5: The Indo-Pacific, 16. Domestic Sources of Japan's China Policy 1945-2021 (Shibuichi Daiki), 17. The Korean Peninsula in Japanese Security (Tsuneo Konishi), 18. North Korea's Nuclear Posture and Japan's Defense (Kurata Hideya), 19. Japan and ASEAN (Tamotsu Fukuda), 20. Japan's Strategic Partnership with India (Purnendra Jain), 21. Japan and Australia: An Indo-Pacific Alignment (H.D.V. Envall and Thomas S. Wilkins).