"Japan’s New Security Policies: A Long Road To Full Implementation" By CWP Alum Adam Liff

On December 16, 2022, Japan’s government released a new national security strategy, national defense strategy, and defense buildup program. In mid-January, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and key Cabinet officials visited Washington to jointly highlight these documents and discuss the next steps for the U.S.-Japan alliance with the Biden administration. 

At the time, much commentary rightly noted the historic ambition contained within Japan’s new strategies aimed at strengthening deterrence in response to a worsening regional security environment.

In all the excitement over these historic announcements, however, much of the discourse has inappropriately treated Japan’s strategies as a done deal, as though their full realization is inevitable. The reality is that an extraordinary alignment of political, economic, fiscal, and other stars will be necessary for Japan’s government to fully implement the Kishida administration’s stated ambitions over the next 5-10 years.

Adam P. Liff and Jeffrey W. Hornung Monday, March 27, 2023 - https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2023/03/27/japans-new-security-policies-a-long-road-to-full-implementation/

Professor Adam P. Liff is Associate Professor of East Asian International Relations at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global & International Studies (EALC Department), and Director of its 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative ("21JPSI"). Beyond IU, he is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, as well as an Associate-in-Research at Harvard University's Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies and Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics from Princeton University, and a B.A. from Stanford University.

Liff's research examines critical issues related to international security and contemporary foreign policy challenges in the Asia-Pacific—with a particular focus on the politics and ongoing evolution of Japan’s foreign (esp. security) policy and the U.S.-Japan alliance; Japan-U.S.-China relations; and U.S. Asia-Pacific strategy. His current research projects include analyses of the post-Abe evolution of Japan’s defense policy and the U.S.-Japan alliance; the past, present, and future of Japan-Taiwan relations; and Japan and other major U.S. treaty allies’ positions and evolving policies vis-a-vis Taiwan.

Photo Credit: By Rikujojieitai Boueisho - https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/y8EfOvWorDkdpSgrbBVp4dMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31890988