Author: Dennis T. Yasutomo, Smith College

Media reports indicate that after the 11 March earthquake, Japanese residents of Sendai had a 30 minute warning before the tsunami hit. In a sense, the Japanese had expected this for 30 years. The longer-term question is what will happen in the next 30 years.

In 1980, the Japanese government adopted ‘comprehensive national security’ (‘sogo anzen hosho’) as its security doctrine, and comprehensive security stepped outside US military-centric thinking for the first time. Read more…