The passage of the collective self defense bills-- enabling
Japanese participation in military activities beyond its home territory under restrictions
that appear to be rather elastic--
In case Japan faces “a survival-threatening situation,” in which the
United States and other countries that have close ties with the nation
come under an armed attack by a third country and that poses a threat to
the existence of Japan and the livelihoods of Japanese people, Japan
now can use minimum necessary force.
--had a feeling of inevitability to me.
They give more freedom of movement to the Japanese
government in its security policy, more leverage in its foreign relations, and
more gravy to the corporate sector.
These are opportunities that most modern governments, especially a
right-wing government like Abe’s, would be eager to exploit.
And I think it’s accurate to describe them as a “normalization”
of Japan’s international status, especially if “the norm” is understood to be a
downgrade from the Japan’s previous condition, in other words a decline from
the idealistic, pacifist aspirations of Japan’s US-imposed constitution to
ordinary government-business-and-media driven war-grubbing.
The Japanese people as a whole appear to be more at home
with these aspirations—which they grew up with—than the Abe ambition to restore
Japan as a regional security player despite the risk it poses to Japanese
lives, treasure, and honor.
Abe had to abandon his plans to revise the constitution to
make “collective self defense” legal, and ignore the fact that an overwhelming
majority of constitutional lawyers regarded his Plan B—“reinterpretation” of
Article 9—as BS. Then he had to turn his
back on massive demonstration against the bills to push them through the
legislature.
It was ugly. And Japan’s
somewhat less special now.
The temptation is to blame rising, scary China and the PRC’s
messing with the Senkakus.
However, Abe’s been pushing an anti-PRC
containment “diamond” ever since his first administration in 2007, when the PRC
was not yet officially “scary”.
Abe has always wanted his “normalized” “remilitarized” “no
more apologies” Japan and he got it…with an assist from the United States.
The United States under President Obama decided to take the
plunge and openly commit to a China containment strategy keystoned on Japanese
participation.
Even as many Asian nations—not just the PRC—expressed ambivalence
over the re-emergence of Japan as a potential regional military force—US
strategists have enthusiastically promoted the process, doing their best to
dismiss popular opposition, the violence done to the constitution, and to the
grotesquely counterproductive effort to force the Futenma base plan down the
throats of the Okinawans.
The feeling, I suppose, is that all this shall pass—or can
be managed—and we’ll have a capable, willing ally ready to help us execute our
China strategy and toeing the US line thanks to the restraints imposed by the constitution and the security legislation.
US Asian-natsec strategists are, I believe, delusional.
I predict we’re not going to get Japan as our “UK in the Pacific” i.e.
a slavishly obedient ally that has decided, as a fundamental national principle,
to join itself to the hip to the United States in security policy.
We’re going to get something more like our “Israel in the
Pacific”, an occasional, contentious, and conditional partner advancing its own
agenda, an agenda that may well turn out to be more reckless and
confrontational than it would be otherwise thanks to the moral hazard of strong
US backing.
A while back I wrote in Asia Times Online:
Historically inclined readers might note 1) these are all countries that Japan invaded and/or occupied as a matter of national interest in World War II and 2) Japan is run by the spiritual heirs—or in the case of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the direct heirs — of people who ran Japan back then and implemented that policy until the United States defeated them.
…
When you anoint Japan as a theater-wide anti-PRC military ally, you’re not getting the same ally you had when Japan’s main job was hosting US bases and poking around in its own territorial waters and airspace.
And the ability of the United States to “manage” Japan and “lead”
Asia is on a downward trajectory:
It’s not just the PRC. Everybody’s getting bigger, and the US’s relative share is shrinking.
PricewaterhouseCoopers took the IMF’s 2014 GDP numbers and worked the spreadsheet magic using projected growth rates.
In 2050, here’s how they see the GDP horserace playing out, in trillions: China 61; India 42; USA 41; Indonesia 12; Brazil 9; Mexico 8; Japan 7.9; Russia 7.5; Nigeria 7.3 and Germany 6.3. Poodlicious Euro-allies UK, Italy, and France will be out of the top ten in 2050. Australia drops from 19th place to 28th.
Put it another way, the US will have 14 percent of the world’s GDP and Asia, the region we’re purporting to lead, will have 50 percent.
…
America’s Pacific Century…is not going to be pushing around overmatched, grateful, and anxious allies like the UK, Poland, and Germany while trampling on small borderline failed states in the Middle East. It’s going to be contending with half a dozen rising Asian nations, all with experiences of empire and aspirations to at least local hegemony…and on top of them, there’s China.
I think Asia is robust enough to accommodate and restrain
the ambitions of the PRC…and resist US attempts to “lead” it.
Ditto for Japan.
I wouldn’t be surprised if historians look back at the
passage of the Japanese security bills and regard them as a milestone in the
decline of American influence in Asia…one that was eagerly and shortsightedly celebrated
by US strategists at the time.
Maybe we’ll be saying September 19, 2015 didn't just mark the end of
Japanese pacifism. We’ll say that the sun began to set on America’s Pacific Century…before
it even had a chance to rise.
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