McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014 April, 2014 | Page 54

of this, it is clear that Japan’s postwar
strategic culture highly values the rationality
of conflict-avoidance, as demonstrated
by its strong economic ties with the US
and the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC). Consensus

“unlike defensive realism, post
classical realism explicitly incorporates the question of
economic power in addition to
that of the security dilemma.”

within Japan’s foreign policy community
has traditionally maintained that the sheer
breadth of exchange and economic activity
generated by these ties inherently confers
a minimum guarantee of security to the
nation and allows for the accumulation of
power without the need to expend resources
on the maintenance of a sizeable military.
The Yoshida doctrine, named after
Shigeru Yoshida who served as prime
minister of Japan between 1948 and 1954,
prioritized economic growth in postwar
Japan and stipulated that international
disputes be avoided wherever possible and
defense expenditures be kept to a minimum,
relative to