Japan: The ‘Normal’ Pacifist (original) (raw)

2016, E-International Relations

Since World War II, Japan’s sui generis constitution has fascinated International Relations academics, eliciting an extensive plethora of scholarship. But whilst constructivists, liberalists, and realists alike have made compelling arguments vis-à-vis Japan’s strategic choices, no one paradigm offers a comprehensive explanation. Rather, each theoretical approach provides plausible explanations for different aspects and instances of Japanese behaviour, which are neither necessarily contradictory nor incompatible. This essay thus employs analytic eclecticism[2] in examining Nipponese strategic discourse, particularly its ‘abnormal’ pacifism, since World War II; concluding that it has been influenced by structural and material, as well as ideational considerations. This is evidently not a configuration unique to Japan, and calls into question vague characterisations of ‘abnormality’. Similarly, the following suggests that while contemporary developments may challenge perceptions of a pacifistic Tokyo, they represent a congruence with, rather than divergence from, Japan’s pragmatic strategic calculus of the past seven decades. Far from altruism, Japan’s supposed pacifism has endured because of, not despite, the same material, structural and ideational dynamics that ostensibly subvert it today.