Japan's security renaissance : new policies and politics for the twenty-first-century / Andrew L. Oros.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

For decades after World War II, Japan chose to focus on soft power and economic diplomacy alongside a close alliance with the United States, eschewing a potential leadership role in regional and global security. Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since the rise of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan's military capabilities have resurged. In this analysis of Japan's changing military policy, Andrew L. Oros shows how a gradual awakening to new security challenges has culminated in the multifaceted "security renaissance" of the past decade.

Despite openness to new approaches, however, three historical legacies--contested memories of the Pacific War and Imperial Japan, postwar anti-militarist convictions, and an unequal relationship with the United States--play an outsized role. In Japan's Security Renaissance Oros argues that Japan's future security policies will continue to be shaped by these legacies, which Japanese leaders have struggled to address. He argues that claims of rising nationalism in Japan are overstated, but there has been a discernable shift favoring the conservative Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party. Bringing together Japanese domestic politics with the broader geopolitical landscape of East Asia and the world, Japan's Security Renaissance provides guidance on this century's emerging international dynamics.

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CHOICE Review

Oros persuasively argues that Japan is experiencing a security renaissance as the nation's new, pro-active support for collective security continues to transform the way both Japanese and the world around them view Japan's military forces and its contributions to global peace and prosperity. Japan's lingering WWII legacies of anti-militarism, pacifism, and unequal relationship with the US have long dominated its postwar security policy. More recently, these legacies also have guided how Japan is adapting to current changes in the regional balance of power. That balance has been deeply affected by the combined threats of a rising China and a dangerously noxious North Korea, as well as Japan's own domestic challenges, like the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, economic sluggishness, and unfavorable demographic trends. The global implications of a gradual shift in Japanese defense policies and decision making are plainly visible. Clearly, Japan's regional security environment is in the process of a significant, dramatic evolution. Even its longstanding, postwar soft power approach has refocused from presenting the nation as a beacon of democracy and economic progress to showcasing it instead as a source of "cool" cultural influences, excellent cuisine, cutting-edge fashion, and modern design. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Sophia Crysler Hart, College of William and Mary