Neorealism Versus Strategic Culture by John Glenn

Author:John Glenn [Glenn, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351152785
Google: jrlHDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 38136580
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2004-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Japan’s Non-nuclear Weapons Policy

Of the four principles underpinning the ‘Basic Policy for National Defence’, the non-nuclear issue is perhaps the most controversial.18 Japan’s non-nuclear policy is sometimes regarded as contradictory because of Japan’s ‘dual policy’ of nuclear denial and nuclear approval: that is, while Japan calls for nuclear disarmament and prohibits the presence of nuclear weapons inside Japan, it does so under the US nuclear umbrella. However, as Prime Minister Sato pointed out in a speech to the National Diet in December 1967, the three non-nuclear principles constitute only one of the four pillars of Japan’s official nuclear policy. The other pillars are: the promotion of nuclear disarmament efforts; the strengthening of the US nuclear umbrella as guaranteed by the US-Japanese Security Treaty; and, the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes (Wakaizumi, 1994). These four pillars are inextricably linked, none more so than Japan’s status as a non-nuclear weapon state and the United States’ nuclear guarantee (Sakuragawa, 1985).

In setting out the four pillars of Japan’s official nuclear policy, the government announced that the US nuclear guarantee constituted a prerequisite for the three non-nuclear principles. Successive Japanese governments have neither admitted nor denied the possible violation of the third element of Japan’s non-nuclear stance (banning the presence of nuclear weapons from its territory) when nuclear-armed US vessels have called at Japanese ports. However, recently declassified US documents suggest that Japan’s non-nuclear principles were compromised (Kristensen, 1999). This reflects the difficulties confronting any Japanese government. On the one hand, the government must take into account the ‘anti-nuclear’ sentiment voiced by the majority of the population and, on the other hand, Japanese leaders are acutely aware of their country’s dependence on the United States and its capabilities for providing extended deterrence. The compromise between these pressures has meant that Japan has deterred any nuclear threats because of the United States’ nuclear umbrella, but it has done so without having to accept actual deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory, unlike some of the West European states during the Cold War.

For example, during the Cold War, in the face of China’s first nuclear explosion in 1964, the Japanese government sought further security assurances from the US in addition to the US-Japanese Security Treaty of 1960. Article 5 of the Treaty obliges the US to come to the aid of Japan’s defence. At the time, Prime Minister Sato attempted to negotiate a further security commitment from the US and this was reflected in the Joint Communiqué issued in January 1965. Article 8 of this document stated that the President ‘reaffirmed the United States’ determination to abide by its commitment under the treaty to defend Japan against any armed attack from the outside’. The word ‘any armed attack’ is generally considered by the Japanese government as the first explicit statement of the United States’ obligation to defend Japan, both by conventional and nuclear forces. This was followed by two other Joint Communiqués of the governments, issued in November 1967 and November 1969, reaffirming the intention of the two governments to strengthen the alliance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.