Japan's Missile Defense
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University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2008 Japan's Missile Defense Norifumi Namatame University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Asian Studies Commons, and the Defense and Security Studies Commons Recommended Citation Namatame, Norifumi, "Japan's Missile Defense" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 468. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/468 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. JAPAN'S MISSILE DEFENSE ________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies University of Denver ________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy ________ BY Norifumi Namatame November 2008 Copyright 2008 by Norifumi Namatame All Rights Reserved CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION . 1 II. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES . 9 A. Basic Concepts B. Realism and Pacifism in the Japanese National Identity III. JAPAN'S DEFENSE POLICY . 49 A. From Defeat to Re-Armament (1945-60) B. The Cold War and Japanese Security (1961-80) C. The Second Cold War and the Strategic Defense Initiative (1981-1990) D. The End of the Cold War and the New Era in Japanese Security (1991-) IV. MISSILE DEFENSE BACKGROUND, CURENT ISSUES, AND THE FUTURE . 138 A. Missile Defense Concepts B. Missile Defense Development in the United States C. Japan's Missile Defense: The Program D. Japan's Missile Defense: The Debate E. Japan's Missile Defense: The Future V. CONCLUSION . 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 216 ii ABBREVIATIONS GPALS Global Protection Against Limited Strikes (US) JASDF Japan Air Self-Defense Forces JDA Japan Defense Agency (From July 1954 to January 2007) JGSDF Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces JMD Japan's missile defense program JMSDF Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces LDP Liberal Democratic Party MD Missile Defense program (US) MDE Mutual Defense Emphasis MOD Japan's Ministry of Defense (Since January 2007) MOFA Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs SDF Self-Defense Forces SDI Strategic Defense Initiative (US) iii Chapter I INTRODUCTION The international security environment in East Asia is far from stable and predictable. A variety of states in the region have long, troubled relationships. The People's Republic of China (PRC, or China in the following discussion) is a regional military power with a nuclear arsenal, and it could contend for global superpower status in the future. China has a number of security problems inside and outside of its vast territory; among which their greatest concern is the issue of the Republic of China (ROC or Taiwan). Taiwan has an advanced economy and considerable military forces to counter the threat from the mainland. Its close relationship with the United States has provided some power balance with China. The split of the Korean Peninsula is a legacy of the Cold War. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), under dictator Kim Jong Il, has posed the most imminent post-Cold War threat to the region with its nuclear weapons development and ballistic missile programs. The Republic of Korea (ROK or 1 South Korea), like Taiwan, showed impressive economic growth in the 1980s and has maintained a stable democratic regime since the late 1980s. Following the defeat in World War II, Japan became known as a peaceful nation and mercantile state. However, the second largest economy in the world has gradually developed its role in the international security field and increased its military power. There exists "a complex, multidimensional, multilevel security agenda that has forced changes and has tested Japan's security policy" (Hughes 2004, 3). Japan faces a number of issues with its neighbors: territorial disputes with China regarding the Senkaku Islands, with South Korea regarding Takeshima (Dokdo) Island, and with Russia regarding the Northern Territories; historical legacies such as Japanese prime ministers' worshipping at Yasukuni Shrine, reactionary revisions of Japanese history schoolbooks, and chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese military in Chinese territory during World War II; and economic concerns like the development of energy and natural resources in the East China Sea. Above all, the United States, the only global superpower after the Cold War, is the key actor in the region. George W. Bush's administration has been engaging in 2 an unprecedented "war against terrorism," adopting an approach to policy which critics condemn as "unilateralism." The United States has played an irreplaceable role in East Asia, adopting a hub and spokes type of alliance with Japan, South Korea, and (informally) Taiwan, unlike the collective defense organization of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Europe. In this complex environment, Japan's defense and security policies have a significant impact on international relations. Meanwhile, the development of military technology through history has been remarkable. In order to fight and win wars, humans have invented such offensive weapons as bows and arrows, cannons, gunpowder, tanks, airplanes, and missiles. The history of war consists of battles between offense and defense, and we have tried to counter offensive weapons with shields, fortifications, trenches, anti-tank weapons and anti-aircraft missiles. Such battles and the need to win wars have encouraged further advancement of military technology. Recent developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have brought about the so- called "revolution in military affairs" (RMA). Some believe that we can finally "hit a bullet with a bullet" and shoot down nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles before they hit a 3 target. The United States has aggressively pursued the development of a missile shield for the sake of its own national security, but there remain many issues to be solved. Japan has been involved in the US missile defense program since 1993, and recently announced that it would build its own missile defense system. However, the development and deployment of Japan's missile defense could have grave implications for regional and global security. This study will focus on Japan's missile defense program. This issue has been little discussed in public until recently, compared with the debate on ballistic missile defense in the United States. This is true even in the Japanese international security literature. This can partly be attributed to the fact that Japan has only been cooperating with the United States on missile defense research and had not made a decision to deploy its own missile defense system until recently. But the substantive shift in Japan's defense strategy should be of great concern. There have been few scholarly works on the development of strategic thinking in Japan's policy on defense against ballistic missile threats. Considering the growing importance of strategic views on emerging ballistic missile threats, it is worth exploring the defense and security 4 policy of the second largest economy in the world, a major actor in the regional and world security arena, and the holder of one of the world's largest and most sophisticated armed forces. This is a case study based on qualitative rather than quantitative analysis. While it refers to theories of international relations, its basic approach is inductive, descriptive and discovery oriented. This is a historical and narrative study of Japan's defense and security policy, mainly focusing on the modern period following 1945, the year that Japan was defeated in World War II and began reconstructing its foreign and defense policy from scratch. The data sources primarily consist of the following three. First, this research used official documents from records of the Kokkai (Diet; Japanese congress), Defense White Papers, and other official publications by the Self Defense Forces (SDF), Japan Defense Agency (JDA), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), and so forth. Second, the author updated readings from the wealth of materials continually coming out on the missile defense issue, including relevant books and academic journals articles, as well as documents, data, and other materials available through the Internet. Third, this research made use of media sources, including editorials, 5 op-eds, and reports from leading newspapers in the United States and Japan. This research is conducted at three levels of analysis: systemic, state, and individual. The systemic level includes international structures, state power polarity (unipolar or multipolar), international economic conditions, and the Cold War and post-Cold War environments. It also involves regional analysis, referring to Japan's political relations with China, Taiwan, North Korea, South Korea, and the United States, as well as their economic ties and interdependence. The state level of analysis examines institutions (e.g., the government, Diet, constitution), bureaucratic politics (JDA and MOFA), partisanship (e.g., Liberal Democratic Party, Socialist Party), civil-military relations (SDF), the military-industry complex (e.g., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries), mass media (newspaper, television, and journals), public opinion, domestic economy (economic development, recession, and financial resources), security culture (World