PRESS

KEY POINTS
CHAPTER 13
JAPANESE HARD POWER:
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE 1
Toshi Yoshihara
• Japan’s ambition to play a larger role on the
world stage and address the security problems
posed by a rising China have led Tokyo
to undertake institutional, policy, and defense
reforms.
• Japan’s military reforms are intended to move
its defense force from a posture of passive
deterrence to one that is agile and forward
leaning.
• Given Japan’s budgetary restraints, however, it
is unclear whether its resources can match its
strategic ambitions.
No longer is Japan the political shrinking violet
of the immediate post-war years. Historians will
look back on the first decades of the 21st century as
a turning point for Japanese strategy, both in East
Asia and beyond. From major national security decisions—including
the recent move to assume a limited
right of collective self-defense—to a shift in military
posture to counter a rising China, Japan is steadily
loosening the constraints on its security policy. Japanese
hard power, which includes Japan’s first rate
but constitutionally handicapped military, will correspondingly
play a more prominent role in Tokyo’s
strategic calculus.
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