The worsening of the territorial conflict between China and Japan around the Senkaku Islands and the recent increase in the Japanese defense budget have aroused the concern of certain observers who perceive this situation as so many indications of a remilitarization of the country. However, these developments can only be fully understood by taking into account Japan's military history and analyzing the internal and external factors of these developments.
Le 13 mai dernier, trois navires gouvernementaux chinois sont entrés dans les eaux territoriales des îles Senkaku (Diaoyu en chinois) disputées au Japon en mer de Chine orientale. Il s’agit du dernier incident en date de l’épreuve de force dans laquelle les deux pays se sont engagés, depuis que Tokyo a nationalisé trois de ces cinq îles en les achetant à leur propriétaire privé en septembre 2012. La Chine a depuis régulièrement envoyé des navires, mais aussi ponctuellement des avions autour de cet archipel inhabité, alors qu’en parallèle, Tokyo annonçait la constitution d’une force spéciale de 600 hommes et 12 navires pour surveiller et protéger les Senkaku.Cette position de fermeté par rapport à la Chine a été favorisée par le retour au pouvoir du PLD (Parti Libéral Démocrate, conservateur) [1]The LDP has also governed Japan almost continuously since its creation in 1955, except for a ten-month interlude between 1993 and 1994, and between August 2009 and December 2012 following... Continue reading during the legislative elections of December 2012. This domination of the PLD particularly worries pacifists, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe having included an increase in military spending in his electoral program. He did not deviate from his reputation as a “hawk” in matters of foreign policy by warning in April that Japan would expel by force any possible Chinese landing on the Senkaku. In a context where the Japanese security environment is increasingly tense, and while North Korea carried out two missile test launches last year and a nuclear test in February, a growing number of voices are pleading in in favor of a more aggressive foreign policy free from the influence of the United States. This would distance it from the principles which have, over the last decades, shaped Japan's defense policy.Attachments
Notes
| ↑1 | The LDP has also governed Japan almost without interruption since its creation in 1955, except for a ten-month interlude between 1993 and 1994, and between August 2009 and December 2012 following the clear victory of its main rival, the Democratic Party of Japan. Center-left Japan (PDJ). |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | AKN Ahmed, “An Emerging Military Power”, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 23, N.34, August 20, 1988, p. 1738 |
| ↑3 | Notably the sending of members of the FAD to Cambodia in 1991 and 53 peacekeepers to Mozambique in 1993. |
| ↑4 | Hiroshi Nakanishi, “The Gulf War and Japanese diplomacy”, December 16, 2012, www.nippon.com |
| ↑5 | Edouard Pflimlin, “Japan relaunches its military spending in the face of the Chinese threat”, Le Monde, January 9, 2013 |
| ↑6 | Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Yearbook 2012, p. 154 |
| ↑7 | Martin Fackler, “Japan is Flexing its Military Muscle to Counter a Rising China”, The New York Times, November 26, 2012 |
| ↑8 | Alicia PQ Wittmeyer, “Why Japan and China could accidentally end up at war”, Foreign Policy, March 19, 2013 |
