Japan’s Multi-tiered Security Approach

During the Cold WarCold War era, Japan’s foreign and security policy was guided by four principles articulated by Prime MinisterPrime Minister (PM) (PMPrime Minister (PM)) Shigeru YoshidaYoshida, Shigeru in the post-World War II (WW IIWorld War Two (WW II)) period. Known as the Yoshida DoctrineYoshida Doctrine, these principles were: prioritizing economic development as Japan’s primary goal; refraining from substantial armamentArmament and involvement in international conflictsConflict; aligning with American political leadership and recognizing its military protection; and pursuing a foreign policy based on international cooperation rather than ideological alliancesAlliance (Brzezinski, The grand chess board: American primacy and its geostrategic imperatives, Basic Books, 1997, 178). The Yoshida DoctrineYoshida Doctrine represented a comprehensive security policy characterized by a strategyStrategy of minimal rearmament for Japan, emphasizing economic recovery and relying on a security allianceAlliance with the US (Akaha, Asian Survey 4:324–340, 1991, 324–325; Okazaki, International Security 2:188–197, 1982, 188). As a subordinate partner in the bilateral relationship, TokyoTokyo acquiesced to the unequal terms of the security treaty established in 1951 during the waning days of the US occupation of post-warPost-war Japan, formalized further with the ratification under the San Francisco Peace TreatySan Francisco Peace Treaty a year later. However, by the 1950s, mounting domestic criticism in Japan regarding the origins and inequities of this initial security agreementAgreement compelled the Nobusuke Kishi cabinet to seek renegotiation. Subsequently, a revised treaty was finalized in WashingtonWashington in January 1960 (Shinoda, T. (2011). Costs and benefits of the U.S.-Japan alliance from the Japanese perspective. In Inoguchi, T., Ikenberry, G.J., and Sato, Y. (Ed.), The U.S.-Japan security alliance: Regional multilateralism (pp. 13–29). New York: Palgrave Macmillan., 13; Kazuya, S. (2009). Conditions of an independent state: Japanese diplomacy in the 1950s. In Iokibe, M. (Ed.), Eldridge, R.D. (Trans.), The diplomatic history of postwar Japan (pp. 50–80). New York: Routledge., 71–74).