ABSTRACT
Japan is an anomaly. It is the second-ranking economic power in the world and the first in Asia. It has a population of 125 million, and is strategically located off the northeast coast of Asia, yet it is not a superpower. Japan has a modest military force of about 240,000 men and women, but because of the restrictions of its constitution and, more important, its self-imposed policies limiting the size and deployment of its armed forces, Japan’s strategic role in the global power equation remains a minor one. Nuclear weapons are proscribed under present policy, although many years ago Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that the restrictions of Article 9 of the Constitution do not prohibit the possession or use of defensive nuclear weapons. The Japanese government has for many years pursued a policy of limiting defense expenditures to less than 1 percent of gross national product (GNP), and no party in power has had sufficient political strength or courage to break that ceiling. This puts a clear limit on the total strength of the national defense, although, as a consequence of Japan’s hi-tech industrial base, it is a hi-tech armed force. Economic power without commensurate military power limits political power; thus Japan has only one strong element of the three usual attributes of strategic power (political, economic, and military).
