Abstract
Japan’s maritime security interests have been diverse yet constant since World War Two. The sea has served as an important source of its food supply, and key sea-lanes remain a lifeline for its economic prosperity and power. To assure its fair share and a sustainable use of maritime resources, Japan takes an active part in the international politics of resource management through legal, political, and more recently security approaches. Likewise, concerns about continued traditional maritime threats in East Asia and increasing non-state criminal offenses at sea have seen Japan slowly moving away from its “self-defense” orientation, assuming greater responsibility for allied security, and expanding its regional security partnerships. This paper examines Japan’s maritime strategies during and after the Cold War, in particular its efforts to build layers of multilateral security mechanisms for its manifold interests and concerns amidst the changing power configuration in East Asia.
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Notes
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For example, the 2012 report by the Ocean Policy Discussion Group of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation (MLIT), which supervises the civilian coast guard, exclusively focus on matters within the MLIT jurisdiction and avoids making any reference to the role of the SDF. Ocean Policy Discussion Group, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation (Japan), Kokudo kotsusho kaiyo seisaku kondankai houkokusho—shin no kaiyo kokka wo mezashite [Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation Ocean Policy Discussion Group Report—Toward a true maritime nation], March 2012. http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/000205494.pdf (accessed on 28 March 2012) The two facts that the portfolio of Minister of Ocean Policy has concurrently been held by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation (MLIT) and that the ocean policy study group was placed under the MLIT indicate that coordinating Japan’s maritime policy at the cabinet level has been extremely difficult.
- 34.
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Masahiro Akiyama, “Enacting the Basic Ocean Law—the Process And the Background,” a paper prepared for IIPS Symposium on Japan’s Position as a Maritime Nation, 16–17 October 2007, Tokyo. http://www.iips.org/07mar/07marAkiyama.pdf (accessed on 28 August 2012).
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Sato, Y. (2017). Japan’s Maritime Security: Continuity and Post-Cold War Evolution. In: Tarling, N., Chen, X. (eds) Maritime Security in East and Southeast Asia. Palgrave, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2588-4_7
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