Abstract
In August 1991 Newsweek commented that ‘the seismic events of the past two years — from the end of the Cold War to the war in the Gulf — have forced Japan to confront some new realities. What they add up to is that economic supremacy alone is not enough; like it or not, Japan may have to start flexing some military muscle too’.1 How realistic are these claims? Prima facie, the evidence would appear to confirm such suspicions. Japan’s military budget is the sixth largest in the world. The JSDF is equipped with technologically advanced weaponry and it is supported by a small but well-organised and technologically sophisticated military—industrial complex.
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3 Japan’s Self-Defence Forces and the Alliance
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© 1995 Neil Renwick
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Renwick, N. (1995). Japan’s Self-Defence Forces and the Alliance. In: Japan’s Alliance Politics and Defence Production. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230371453_3
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