McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014 April, 2014 | Page 60

under the American security umbrella,
devoting only one percent of its GNP
towards security expenditures. Current
domestic economic stagnation threatens to
dislodge Japan from its position as a regional
hegemon, thus reinforcing rearmament as
a preferred foreign policy. Furthermore,
direct security threats from North Korea
and underlying insecurities about China’s
accession to power bolster the di scourse
within Japanese policymaking circles which
call for increased security independence.
Japan’s relationship with the US has been
mutually beneficial, but its terms appear to
be shifting. Ultimately, Japan’s incorporation
of economic power as a central component
of its security policy and in accordance
with theoretical projections outlined by the
postclassical realist framework account for
its behavior as an increasingly militarized
state.
Japan’s
transition
from
wartime
devastation to economic affluence in
the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
has been a remarkable narrative. In this
sense, much is owed to policymakers’
concentration on domestic development and
the projection of a peaceful foreign policy.
Militarist rhetoric from Prime Minister Abe
and the rearmament and recalibration of
Japanese defense forces threaten to disrupt
this trajectory of Japan’s postwar peace.
One must hope, ultimately, that the lessons
gleaned from Japan’s previous experiment
with hyper-militarization have not entirely
faded only a handful of generations later.
__________________________________

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