ABSTRACT
This volume has demonstrated that with the end of the Cold War Japan has abandoned security isolationism and reliance on the US as its sole security partner in favor of security engagement with a range of countries and actors. This has involved establishing security partnerships with many actors, ending special exceptions in its security policy for the US, and becoming more independent in security policy. This has led to a less central role for the United States, or decentering, as the US is no longer as overwhelmingly as central as it used to be. Nonetheless, the US remains by far the most central partner in Japan’s security policy, its “cornerstone.” This book has demonstrated that Japan has so far mostly used decentering and diversification not to weaken its alliance with the US, but to strengthen it, by building security partnerships with US allies and friendly countries. Decentering has also allowed Japan to develop new options that could be useful for hedging against possible US abandonment. Japan’s decentering through building security partnerships with US allies and US-leaning states can also help it to manage, together with these other states, their common US ally and partner, managing the risks of entrapment as well as abandonment.
