Wilhelm Vosse

Reinhard Drifte

Verena Blechinger-Talcott

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan's security environment has changed significantly. While, on the global level, the United States is still Japan's most important security partner, the nature of the partnership has changed as a result of shifting demands from the United States, new international challenges such as the North Korean nuclear programme and the rapid rise of China. At the same time, Japan has been confronted with new, ‘non-traditional’ security threats such as international terrorism, the spread of infectious diseases, and global environmental problems. On the domestic level, demographic change, labour migration, economic decline, workplace insecurity, and a weakening impact of policy initiatives challenge the sustainability of the lifestyle of many Japanese and have led to a heightened sense of insecurity among the Japanese public. This book focuses on the domestic discourse on insecurity in Japan and goes beyond military security. The chapters cover issues such as Japan’s growing perception of regional and global insecurity; the changing role of military forces; the perceived risk of Chinese foreign investment; societal, cultural and labour insecurity and how it is affected by demographic changes and migration; as well as food insecurity and its challenges to health and public policy. Each chapter asks how the Japanese public perceives these insecurities; how these perceptions influence the public discourse, the main stakeholders of this discourse, and how this affects state-society relations and government policies. Governing Insecurity in Japan provides new insights into Japanese and international discourses on security and insecurity, and the ways in which security is conceptualized in Japan. As such, it will be of interest to students and scholars working on Japanese politics, security studies and international relations.

The Domestic Discourse and Policy Response

Governing Insecurity in Japan

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan's security environment has changed significantly. While the United States is still Japan's most important security partner, the nature of the partnership has changed as a result of new demands from the United States, but also due to new challenges for Japan such as the North Korean nuclear program and the rise of China. Moreover, the Japanese government and foreign policy establishment have been confronted with new, e~non-traditionale(tm) security threats such as international terrorism, the spread of infectious diseases, and global environmental threats. At the same time, on the domestic level, demographic change and the consequences of neo-liberal economic reforms in the first decade of the millennium as well as globalization challenge the sustainability of the current Japanese lifestyle and lead to a heightened sense of insecurity among many Japanese. This sense of insecurity finds its expression both in opinion polls and surveys and in public debate in politics, society and the media. Focusing on the domestic Japanese discourse on security, this bookexpands the standard discussions on security that mostly focus on military security and security in international relations, and bring in perspectives from domestic security, economic and livelihood security as well as sociological discussions of risk and risk management. By doing so, the authors provide new insights into Japanese and international discourses on security as well as the ways in which security is conceptualized in Japan. This book brings together a broad range of topics from traditional, military security to business perspectives on security, perceptions of insecurity in Japanese society and public debates on issues such as migration and food security.

Paul Midford

After decades of solely relying on the United States for its national security needs, over the last decade, Japan has begun to actively develop and deepen its security ties with a growing number of countries and actors in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, a development that has further intensified under the Shinzo Abe administration. This is the first book that provides a comprehensive analysis of the motives and objectives from both the Japanese and the partner-countries’ perspectives, and asks what this might mean for the security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, and what lessons can be learned for security cooperation more broadly. This book is for those interested in Japan’s security policy beyond the US-Japan security alliance, and non-US centred bilateral and multilateral security cooperation. It is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate level courses on regional security cooperation and strategic partnerships, and Japanese foreign and security policy.

Wilhelm Vosse

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