The Evolution of Japanese Security Policy /

The alliance with the United States has been, from the Japanese perspective, a quasi-constant element in their foreign and security policy even though American attention in the postwar era has wandered from the Western Pacific to Europe to the Greater Middle East, and back to the Pacific. [...] Most obviously, if the foregoing analysis of Japan’s geopolitical history is valid, the country will have The Evolution of Japanese Security Policy Page 4 by Barry Cooper December, 2016 The Evolution of Japanese Security Policy to adjust its relationship to China and to the new expectations of the United States regarding its allies in the Western Pacific –which, of course, is also a response to gr [...] The immobility of the Japanese constitution, centred on Article IX, has been interpreted as a consequence of “the weight Japanese tradition assigns to documents and positions of authority; according to Japanese custom, the higher the authority, the less it should be changed.”4 By this logic, since the Constitution is the most authoritative legal document in Japan, it is the least likely to be chan [...] From the Sea of Japan to the East and South China Seas, to the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, salt water, and the struggle to control it has been the foundation of many competing national strategies.23 Naming rights count, as do whether a protrusion above the sea is an island, an atoll, a rock, or something else. [...] China, however, views this body of water in terms of its own sovereignty, not maritime law.24 Japan (and the United States) are more concerned with freedom of navigation and the interpretation of the provisions of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).