Author: Tomohiko Satake, International Relations, ANU
It seems that President Obama’s Prague speech on nuclear disarmament completely suits Japan’s identity as a non-nuclear state. As the only state that has suffered from nuclear bomb blasts, Japan has aimed for the total elimination of nuclear weapons in the post-World War 2 era.
This is why the Japanese Foreign Minister quickly announced Japan’s strong backing for Obama’s initiative and later addressed Japan’s resolve for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament by announcing ‘11 Benchmarks for Global Nuclear Disarmament’.
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Author: Tomohiko Satake, International Relations, ANU
Tobias Harris is one of the few people who understand the reality of Japan’s security situation, without taking an alarmist posture nor being a ‘free-rider’ advocate. I especially agree with his overall message: ‘The security relationship is important, but it cannot be the whole of the US-Japan relationship’.
He argues that the US should ‘socialise’ Japan to have greater diplomatic responsibilities on regional issues, especially in dealing with Korean Peninsula, by taking advantage of its long-term relationship with Japan.
What I am concerned about, however, is that he is too pessimistic about Japan’s military involvement in the international security issues in the future. Or, as he puts it, the ‘idea of a global alliance was far-fetched and doomed to fail’.
It is true that Japan came to have a fear of entrapment by US military action because of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, as an ally ‘dependent’ on the US, Japan’s fear of abandonment is still much greater than its fear of entrapment. Japan is still likely to try to make its contribution to US-led coalition efforts for global security more efficient so as to maintain good alliance relations with the US, although this will certainly take time. This stems not only from Japan’s fear of abandonment, but also from its ambition to be a global player, both in the region and the world. Read more…
Author: Tomohiko Satake
Much thinking outside Japan about Japanese foreign policy posture assumes that a cornerstone in mainstream Japanese foreign policy is containment strategies towards China, which deviates from Japan’s traditional China policy. Former Prime Minister Abe and his Cabinet (read Abe and Aso) were indeed proponents of this posture swimming against Japan’s foreign policy tradition, though even he committed early to patching up relations with China.
While Abe and his faction pushed for values-based diplomacy such as democracy (read exclude and surround China), the Fukuda Cabinet’s line once more reflects core Japanese foreign policy thinking more faithfully, anchored in the economic realities and geo-political realities the country faces.
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