Since the end of World War II, Japan has not sought to remilitarize, and
its postwar constitution commits to renouncing aggressive warfare. Yet
many inside and outside Japan have asked whether the country should or
will return to commanding armed forces amid an increasingly challenging
regional and global context and as domestic politics have shifted in
favor of demonstrations of national strength.
Tom Phuong Le
offers a novel explanation of Japan’s reluctance to remilitarize that
foregrounds the relationship between demographics and security. Japan’s Aging Peace
demonstrates how changing perceptions of security across generations
have culminated in a culture of antimilitarism that constrains the
government’s efforts to pursue a more martial foreign policy. Le
challenges a simple opposition between militarism and pacifism, arguing
that Japanese security discourse should be understood in terms of
“multiple militarisms,” which can legitimate choices such as the
mobilization of the Japan Self-Defense Forces for peacekeeping
operations and humanitarian relief missions. Le highlights how factors
that are not typically linked to security policy, such as aging and
declining populations and gender inequality, have played crucial roles.
He contends that the case of Japan challenges the presumption in
international relations scholarship that states must pursue the use of
force or be punished, showing how widespread normative beliefs have
restrained Japanese policy makers. Drawing on interviews with policy
makers, military personnel, atomic bomb survivors, museum coordinators,
grassroots activists, and other stakeholders, as well as analysis of
peace museums and social movements, Japan’s Aging Peace provides new insights for scholars of Asian politics, international relations, and Japanese foreign policy.
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