ABSTRACT
We have seen in the previous chapters how Japanese defence and security policies have been a source of controversy in the post-1945 period. The experience of the war, both as a militarized aggressor and as a victim, especially of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the promulgation of a new Constitution, with an anti-militaristic Preamble and Article 9; the abolition of and then gradual build-up of military forces, culminating in the present-day SDF; and Japan’s alliance with the United States, premised on the extension of the ‘nuclear umbrella’, have all helped to shape mass attitudes towards a whole range of defence and security policies. Thus attitudes at the mass level are a result of the longer-term influences of history and political culture as well as the shorter-term influences of specific domestic and international events and pressures. As such, they are manifest in public opinion polls and participation in political movements and demonstrations, as well as in voting patterns. Although election results most directly measure popular acceptance of, acquiescence in or rejection of government policies, nation-wide public opinion polls also provide valuable insight into popular attitudes towards these policies.
