Sengo Nihon no Anzen Hoshō: Nichibei Dōmei, Kenpō 9 jō kara NSC made (Japan’s Postwar National Security: From the US-Japan Alliance and Article 9 to the NSC)

With the release of the three new national security documents (the National Security Strategy [kokka anzen hoshō senryaku] [NSS, hereafter], the National Defense Strategy [kokka bōei senryaku], and the Defense Capability Development Plan [bōeiryoku seibi keikaku]) by the Cabinet of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio in mid-December 2022, Japan’s security policy has once again come under the spotlight. The documents heralded a historic change in Japan’s defense posture since the end of World War II. In particular, the government of Japan formally departed from the long-standing “basic defense force concept” (kibanteki bōeiryoku kōsō) which has restrained the use of its military and which was established by the Miki Cabinet in 1976 against the backdrop of the US–USSR détente (100; Takahashi 2016: 55). In the context of these changes, the book Sengo nihon no anzen hoshō: Nichibei dōmei, kenpō 9 jō kara NSC made (Japan’s Post-war Security: from the US–Japan alliance and Article 9 to the NSC) by Chijiwa Yasuaki is particularly worth reading. A researcher at the National Institute of Defense Studies (NIDS, Bōei kenkyū jo) and an expert on military history, Chijiwa has examined the evolution of concepts, ideas, and the role of specific intellectual entrepreneurs in the development of postwar Japan’s security policy. He does so in detail and with clarity, using examples and metaphors that make his book potentially accessible to a wider audience in Japan. The book is divided into six chapters, the first five of which deal with a specific pillar of Japan’s postwar security posture until December 2022. First, the US–Japan alliance; second, Japan’s postwar Constitution and Article 9; third, the former National Defense Program Outline (NDPO), currently known as the National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPGs); fourth, the US–Japan Defense Guidelines; and fifth, the National Security Council (NSC).