A pacifist Japan beginning to embrace the military
that the public’s devotion to pacifism – and attitude towards the military, known as the Self-Defense Forces – have begun to change, in part at the urging of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Abe’s slow, steady efforts to remove pacifist constraints on the military may have gotten help on Tuesday, when North Korea fired a ballistic missile that sailed over Japan’s northern island, Hokkaido, prompting the government to issue television and cellphone alerts warning residents in its path to take cover. It was the first time North Korea had flown a missile over Japanese territory without the pretext of launching a satellite. The missile landed harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean, but Abe called it an “unprecedented, grave and serious threat”.
“We have been living in peace for such a long time that we believe this peace is going to last forever,” said Ichiro Miyazoe, 74. “Japan has had a weak attitude, like a losing dog. We must have a stronger military.”
Although the Japanese public has long been ambivalent about Abe’s agenda – polls show that about half or more disagree with his efforts to revise the pacifist clause of the constitution – its fascination with the military has been growing. Applications for tickets to attend the Fuji drills were oversub- scribed by a factor of nearly six to one this year. According to polls by the prime minister’s Cabinet office, the number of those who say they are interested in the Self-Defense Forces has risen to 71 percent in 2015, up from about 55 percent in the late 1980s.
Manga comics and anime television shows like Gate, which feature the Self-Defense Forces fighting against supernatural creatures, have grown popular, while online matchmaking sites offering dates with soldiers have become trendy.
Of course, such activities do not necessarily translate into a desire for a more assertive national defence policy. The most important function of the Self-Defense Forces is disaster relief, and support for the forces soared in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, when troops rescued victims and restored disasterravaged zones.
But at events like the Fuji live-fire drills, some members of the public are starting to consider the possibility that their military could be called upon to perform more than live exercises or disaster relief.
“Once the US or South Korea engages in a war, Japan will also have to take part,” said Masaaki Ishihara, 60, a manager at a construction firm who attended the Sunday drills with his wife, 9-year-old son and a friend. “Japan will be forced to get involved.”
Despite the festival-like atmosphere, with people eating flavoured shaved ice and snapping up T-shirts, model tanks and military-themed cookies at stands, Ishihara’s wife, Takako, 49, said the exercises felt “like a real battle”.
“I got scared watching it,” Takako Ishihara said. “Will peace really continue?” With the rising threats in the region, Abe has repeatedly called for a constitutional revision to allow Japan to expand its military capabilities. Japan is protected by its alliance with the United States, but Abe and his supporters believe the country needs to do more on its own.
Two years ago, Abe pushed through security laws that permit Japan’s troops to participate in overseas combat missions. The Japanese government has also proposed defence spending increases for six years running, and the Defence Ministry recently announced that it would request funds to purchase a US missile defence system, known as Aegis Ashore, that can intercept missiles midflight above the Earth’s atmosphere.
Even as it has grown anxious about the threats, the Japanese public, as citizens of the only country to have experienced the horrors of nuclear war, has remained steadfastly committed to its war-renouncing charter. Before the security laws were passed in 2015, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tokyo to oppose them.
Protesters also regularly show up at US bases in Okinawa to object to the US military presence. There are currently about 54,000 US troops in Japan.
Analysts said the public has yet to reckon with just how far they are willing to go in the name of national security.
“I think that ordinary people tacitly want to avoid thinking about a potential contradiction between the notion of the pacifist clause of the constitution and the reality of changes in Japanese defence policies,” said Jiro Yamaguchi, a professor of political science at Hosei University.
Shinobu Mori, 52, who drove 120 miles with her daughter to attend the annual rite of military Kabuki theater near Mount Fuji, said she enjoyed the display, but hoped the firepower would never actually be used. “I grew up in a peaceful era,” she said. “So I would like to pass that on to the next generation.”