Japan’s Changing Security Norms and Perceptions Since the 1990s

Changes in Japanese security policy and institutions over the past decade and a half nullify cultural and institutionalist views of Japan’s postwar pacifism. The boundary of the Self-Defense Force (SDF)’s activity—which had been understood exclusively as defending Japan’s own territorial integrity—was expanded to UN peacekeeping activities in the early 1990s, and through a series of policy and institutional changes was expanded further to rear support for U.S. troops in regional contingencies and antiterrorist actions. These changes have been accompanied by significant shifts in Japanese attitudes on defense and security issues. Despite the public’s fear of entrapment in war through the alliance relationship with the United States, most Japanese believe that Japan needs to strengthen its defense capability through closer military ties with its alliance partner, and that it is better to revise the peace constitution in order to legitimize the SDF and provide it with military flexibility.