ABSTRACT
The Japanese have rejected the militarism and the martial values of the past and have developed a deeply rooted culture of anti-militarism and pacifism.1 Japanese collective memory retains images of the violence of the pre-war era when political leaders buckled to the demands of the military and Japan’s consensus culture was exploited by the military to demand unstinting support for war. The political leaders who shaped the quasireligious pacifist doctrines of Japanese politics and the bureaucrats who constructed the institutions that give them expression have reacted against the powerful images of this collective memory. This revulsion against the past continues to constrain the expression of defence or security interests which even today still carry the stigma of a taboo.2 Pacifist values can be seen in the great reverence attached to Article 9 of the 1947 constitution, and in the deference paid to the views disseminated by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), the Komeito or the Buddhist clean government party, and the Japanese Socialist Party (JSP).3 The socialists have stressed the “spirit of the Japanese constitution” and that “Japan will declare to the world never to use force abroad.” Their platform calls for a “comprehensive security system based on the UN” and for a “global society of peace and mutual assistance through international cooperation.”4 This idealism has guided Japanese international cooperative aid programmes, civil society and NGO activities, particularly towards developing countries. Such sentiment underlies the notion of Japan as a “global civilian power” which has been promoted by Asahi newspaper correspondent Funabashi Yoichi.5
