Japan's Defensive Foreign Policy and the Politics of Burden Sharing

Japan's foreign policy is a major enigma of the 1990s. According to some, Japan is mired in "immobilisms," passive, adrift without goals—a "reactive state" lacking the will or capability to play a more assertive and active role in the world. ¹ Indeed, so ineffective is its postwar foreign policy, according to one Japanese former defense official, that Japan cannot even be considered a sovereign state. ²