Abstract:
In 2014, Japan’s Cabinet under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe released a new
interpretation of the antimilitaristic provision of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan.
Under the new interpretation, the use of force in collective self-defence is permissible.
In the following year, the National Diet acknowledged a set of security bills known as
NSL as regulations regarding Japan’s new security policies, including the use of force
in collective self-defence. This study aims to analyse the change in Japan’s strategic
culture of antimilitarism using the case study of the reinterpretation of Article 9. In this
study, the approach to strategic culture emphasises the role of institutions. Then, the
strategic culture of antimilitarism is approached by breaking it down into subcultures
of pacifism, anti-traditionalism, and fear of entrapment. This study found that the
influential actors in the reinterpretation are Prime Minister Abe and his political party
LDP, then the National Diet which was dominated by the LDP-Komeito coalition. The
interpretation indicates that certain political camps gained more support in the past
years. It also found that the new interpretation does not indicate that Japan is leaving
antimilitarism. While the new interpretation and NSL expand the role of JSDF by
adding collective self-defence, the interpretation is more or less still restrictive to the
practices of the use of force.
