Self-Defense
By Check out this interesting piece by Michael Penn over at Juan Cole. Penn is concerned about the increasing willingness of Japan’s government to use force, and about the increasing independence of the Self-Defense Forces.
The fact that all of this is clearly contrary to Japan’s Constitution has been waived aside by the government as a matter of little importance (The official line is that there are “other ways” to interpret the Constitution). The fact that about 80% of the Japanese public opposed the American attack on Iraq at the time it began was also irrelevant. The salient point is that the government forced it through and thus made it a reality. As this new reality has set in, the Japanese public has been showing an increasing acceptance of the new status quo.The Bush Administration and the Japanese Right have thus succeeded in bringing about a sea change in Japanese politics. Japan’s age of “irresponsible pacifism” and avoiding the “dirty work” of war is clearly at an end.
Penn goes on to argue that Japan’s government isn’t terribly democratic, due both to the strength of the bureaucracy and the domination of the LDP, and that Self-Defense Forces have lately been expressing a desire for increased freedom of action. Penn thinks, given Japanese history, we should be concerned.
I’m not convinced. It’s unfortunate that Japan has decided to begin emerging from its security cocoon to support W’s adventure in Iraq, but it seems to me that a return to security “normalcy” on the part of Japan is more or less inevitable. Japanese pacifism and the US-Japanese security relationship are relics of the Second World War, and I’m not concerned about increased Japanese assertiveness. As for Japanese democracy, half a dozen European states had large popular majorities opposed to the Gulf II and yet deployed anyway. The fact that Japan also made a deployment (a much smaller one, in fact) is not evidence of a lack of democracy.
Most importantly, I’m not convinced of the value of a pacifistic Japan. I think that the international system requires security maintenance by powerful states, and that Japan, for good and bad, has abdicated its role as a great power for the last sixty years. For example, world piracy is currently at an all time high, and is geographically concentrated in Southeast Asia. The United States Navy is unwilling to deal with the problem, but the MDF might be able to help. Moreover, military weakness on the part of the major Western democracies does no one any good; it allows Cowboy administrations in the U.S. to run amok, with zero regard for the opinions and contributions that other states might make. The historical moment for Japanese imperialism is gone, and I don’t think that Japan’s neighbors have terribly much to fear.