Thank you for harping on this point. It needs harping on, particularly in the Japanophile community.
I also would like to hear your thoughts on the future of pacifism in Japan. Will it endure in its current form?
For my own part, I would like to see pacifism abandoned everywhere, but especially in free countries that are allied with the US and have to deal with North Korea. Will Japan continue to cling to pacifism? Is pacifism really as dominant as it appears to be to someone who just started being able to read the language a couple of years ago?
I don't think pacifism in Japan (or Germany, et c.) can really endure in its current form, no. For one thing, we're eventually not going to want them as wards. For another, I think it's unhealthy psychologically for a people to be wards, especially when it has a proud history of warrior culture. It's good that Japan has diverted its competitive instincts into commerce, and it's also good that we're protecting it given current conditions; but eventually, it's going to get restive and resentful.
Re. how prevalent pacifism is now, I think it's a function of the Japanese tendency to (1) conform to expectations and (2) avoid unpleasantness. After the war, Japan recognized that it can be admired by the world if it does lots of showy participation in the United Nations and talks up its peaceableness. Having succeeded in that PR effort, it's skittish about doing anything that might compromise that image. The SDF is, by many accounts, more ready to project force than Tokyo likes to let on, but there's still a great deal of controversy over collective self-defense, for example. Japan's eventually going to have to become more self-sufficient in armed-forces terms, for both internal and external reasons, though it's probably going to continue to happen in fits and starts.
I also would like to hear your thoughts on the future of pacifism in Japan. Will it endure in its current form?
For my own part, I would like to see pacifism abandoned everywhere, but especially in free countries that are allied with the US and have to deal with North Korea. Will Japan continue to cling to pacifism? Is pacifism really as dominant as it appears to be to someone who just started being able to read the language a couple of years ago?
Re. how prevalent pacifism is now, I think it's a function of the Japanese tendency to (1) conform to expectations and (2) avoid unpleasantness. After the war, Japan recognized that it can be admired by the world if it does lots of showy participation in the United Nations and talks up its peaceableness. Having succeeded in that PR effort, it's skittish about doing anything that might compromise that image. The SDF is, by many accounts, more ready to project force than Tokyo likes to let on, but there's still a great deal of controversy over collective self-defense, for example. Japan's eventually going to have to become more self-sufficient in armed-forces terms, for both internal and external reasons, though it's probably going to continue to happen in fits and starts.