The United States - Japan treaty relationship: Japan's perspective on renewed U.S. commitment

• Main Author: Kubera, John M.
• Other Authors: Buss, Claude Albert
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/7572

With the ending of the Cold War in Europe decreasing the tensions between East and West, the United States Japan security relationship developed after World War II has come under continuous reexamination. In order to rectify possible misperceptions as to U.S. resolve for this alliance in the Pacific, the Department of Defense has currently initiated the U.S.-Japan Security Dialogue. Although the United States and Japan security relationship has a long history throughout the Cold War, it is the recent changes in the strategic environment in Northeast Asia and the world which prompts a reassessment of Japan's own role. The issues that now influence Japan in its reassessment of its desired international role also influence its perspective towards its security relationship with the United States. The constraints placed upon Japan by its history of anti-military policies, domestic budgetary problems and present political alignment do not allow it enough freedom to take a hardline in negotiations with the United States.