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Japan Chapter 8. National Security
![[GIF]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/japan/jp08_00a.gif)
Family crest consisting of three Chinese-style round
fans (uchiwa), once used to direct troops in battle and
the symbol of the god of war.
JAPAN IS IN THE UNUSUAL position of being a major world
economic
and political power, with an aggressive military
tradition,
resisting the development of strong armed forces. A
military
proscription is included as Article 9 of the 1947
constitution
stating, "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a
sovereign
right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a
means of
settling international disputes." That article, along with
the rest
of the "Peace Constitution," retains strong government and
citizen
support and is interpreted as permitting the Self-Defense
Forces
(SDF), but prohibiting those forces from possessing
nuclear weapons
or other offensive arms or being deployed outside of
Japan.
The SDF are under control of the civilian Defense
Agency,
subordinate to the prime minister. Although highly trained
and
fully qualified to perform the limited missions assigned
to them,
the SDF are small, understaffed, and underequipped for
more
extensive military operations. Its activities are confined
to
disaster relief and limited UN peacekeeping efforts.
Japan's national defense policy has been based on
maintaining
the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with
the United
States, under which Japan assumed unilateral
responsibility for its
own internal security and the United States agreed to join
in
Japan's defense in the event that Japan or its territories
were
attacked. Although the size and capability of the SDF have
always
limited their role, until 1976 defense planning focused on
developing forces adequate to deal with the conventional
capabilities of potential regional adversaries. Beginning
in 1976,
government policy held that the SDF would be developed
only to
repel a small-scale, limited invasion and that the nation
would
depend on the United States to come to its aid in the
event of a
more serious incursion.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the
buildup of
military forces in the Soviet Far East, including a group
of
islands to the north of Hokkaido, which were occupied by
the Soviet
Union but claimed by Japan, led Japan to develop a program
to
modernize and improve the SDF in the 1980s, especially in
air
defense and antisubmarine warfare. In the early 1990s, the
government was reevaluating its security policy based on
reduced
East-West tensions.
The Japanese government valued its close relations with
the
United States, and it remained dependent on the United
States
nuclear umbrella. Thus, it worked to facilitate military
contacts
and to support the United States diplomatically whenever
possible.
Both the government and the public, however, supported
only limited
increases in self-defense capability. National security,
it is
believed, is fostered by international diplomacy and
economic aid
as much as by military might.
There are few critical issues for Japan's internal
security.
Conditions of public order compare favorably with those
elsewhere
in the world. The crime rate is remarkably low, kept that
way by
well-organized and efficient police forces assisted by
general
citizen cooperation and support.
Data as of January 1994
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