ABSTRACT
Former Japanese Defense Minister Hideo Usui describes Japanese national security as the number-one priority of Japan’s foreign policy.2 Yet, as Masashi Nishihara of the Japanese National Defense Academy writes,
Today, political leaders rarely talk about comprehensive national security. Instead they talk about how to defend Japan and cope with emergency situations around Japan and in East Asia. Security debates are dominated by subjects such as surveillance satellites, theater-missile defense systems, in-flight refueling devices for jet fighters, antiterrorist units in the SDF and the police organization, and the need for emergency laws. This is a clear indication that the Japanese have shifted their priority in national security.3
