Japan Defense Policy: Time for Change : Inevitably, Tokyo must find ways to reduce its reliance on U.S. military protection

For decades, Japan has faced the dilemma of how to contribute adequately to its own national defense without creating a military force whose size and reach could be seen as threatening by neighbors that suffered grievously from Japanese aggression earlier this century.

Japan hasn’t so much resolved this dilemma as evaded it. It has kept its self-defense forces small and has limited their mission to guarding the home islands’ frontiers. At the same time it has been happy to rely wholly on the United States for strategic protection against external threats. Japan’s new defense plan, agreed to last week by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s coalition government, makes a few changes in the size and the mission of the armed forces, but its most notable feature continues to be reliance on what it calls the indispensable U.S.-Japan security treaty.

This approach may reassure those Asians who are chronically nervous about a potential revival of Japanese militarism. It’s unlikely to win any plaudits in Washington, however, either at the White House or in Congress.

While Japan is reaffirming its wish to keep U.S. troops stationed on its soil--and its readiness to pay for much of their upkeep--it also has moved to cut its own military forces from about 160,000 men to 145,000 and to reduce their training in the field. At a time when Japan is seeking a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, which authorizes peacekeeping operations, its divided government has barely rejected a Socialist Party move to ban Japanese participation in collective security efforts. In short, Japan continues to do the minimum for its own defense and as a contributor to global security.

It’s not that Japan stints on military spending. Its $50-billion defense budget places it second only to the United States. But its defense policy still lacks a clear sense of mission or purpose. Japan lives or dies by trade. Yet it continues to depend on the United States to patrol and safeguard the sea lanes that are its lifeline. Japan has immediate neighbors whose military moves at least bear close watching. Yet it invests little in air reconnaissance of its region. Though it has the world’s second-largest economy, Japan has barely begun to accept the responsibility of participating in peacekeeping missions.

A shaky coalition government headed by a Socialist whose party has historically opposed a more assertive defense policy cannot be looked to as an instrument of change. But at some point, probably sooner rather than later, Japan clearly is going to have to adopt a more coherent and vigorous defense policy. That’s in Japan’s interest, and in the interest of its closest ally.