Book Review: Abe's doctrine: Less pacifist? More proactive?

Abstract

Japan has without doubt implemented major security reforms under the leadership of Prime Minister Abe Shinzō. Less clear perhaps is the direction these reforms are taking the country. Is Abe seeking to move away from Japan’s post-war pacifism and remilitarize instead? Is he turning Japan into a more proactive international player or merely responding to growing regional challenges? Such ambiguities have led to considerable academic debate over Japan’s current strategic trajectory and the nature of a potential ‘Abe Doctrine’, if there is such a thing (e.g. see Kitaoka 2014; Nilsson-Wright and Fujiwara 2015; Hughes 2015; Maslow 2015; Dobson 2016; Easley 2017; Envall 2018). Do Abe’s reforms represent a radical departure for Japan, as Christopher Hughes (2017) argues? Or are Abe’s reforms more evolutionary than revolutionary, as Adam Liff (2015) suggests? It is in this context that Daisuke Akimoto, an academic and policy advisor, has written The Abe Doctrine: Japan’s Proactive Pacifism and Security Strategy. Akimoto seeks to understand whether there is an identifiable ‘Abe Doctrine’ in Japan’s approach to international politics. He is interested in particular in the likely ‘implications and components’ of such a Doctrine and whether it will prove sustainable (p. 3). Show more