Japan’s Proactive Security Policy After Abe: Strategic Rhetoric and Practical Limitations

The assessment of Japan’s security policy during the first 23 years of the twenty-first century went through a 180-degree turn from that of a reactive pacifist to a proactive strategic player. With the end of the Cold War and the emergence of new challenges at a global and regional level, Japan’s leading political drivers, summed up in the Yoshida Doctrine, seemed unable to address the new geopolitical context, entering a phase of reform. The late Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s unusually strong and long leadership between 2012 and 2020 undoubtedly contributed to this shift. While the role of prime ministers in post-Abe years appears to have reverted to a more traditional facilitator role, the strategic direction Abe set in such initiatives as the Quadrilateral meetings among the United States, Japan, Australia and India, as well as the enhancement of Japan’s participation in collective defence and security, remain largely intact in rhetoric. Exploring how this rhetoric exercise translated into more tangible security policies, the article examines Japan’s security diplomacy and defence strategy in the post-Abe context.