Japan must do more to support the U.S. security alliance from which it so benefits.
This bears consideration in light of Japan’s first female fighter pilot qualifying for operational duty. According to the BBC, First Lieutenant Misa Matsushima says she is excited to lead the way for other female pilots. This is good news: Japan has long taken a misguided approach in limiting the role of women in its military forces and female pilots have shown their worth in the U.S. Navy and Air Force for decades now.
Still, while Lieutenant Matsushima represents an evolution towards greater combat capability, Japan’s broader approach to military strategy remains hesitant. Facing an increasingly expansionist and aggressive China, that hesitation is a significant problem for Japan and for the U.S.
For a start, the Japanese defense budget remains insufficient, at around 1 percent GDP each year. While this is partly a consequence of Japan’s longstanding political reluctance to boost military spending, China’s rise and its historically rooted ideological animus towards Japan should motivate the latter’s leadership to wake up. While Japan’s so-called “Self-Defense Forces” are well-trained, well-led, and possessing of advanced equipment, they are limited in number, lack combat experience, and are thus without an institutional culture of combat readiness. If the worse happens and a significant regional conflict one day erupts, Japan will suffer for these gaps.
So will America, in being unable to rely on its close Asian ally as much as feasibly possible.
That speaks to a broader issue: Beyond Prime Minister Abe and a few others, Japan remains insufficiently grateful to the U.S. security guarantees and investments it receives. Frequent anti-American protests are held outside U.S. military bases around the Japanese isles and left-wing politicians portray the U.S. as an arrogant instigator of trouble rather than a reliable partner for freedom. It is in Japan’s own interest to consider these concerns in the mirror of introspection. Absent that choice, a future U.S. president may reduce U.S. support for Japan. That would be a mistake from the U.S. perspective, but it is possible.
After all, President Trump’s frequent rebukes of European NATO allies do not take place in a Trump-vacuum. Rather they reflect longstanding, bipartisan concerns over burden sharing in support of alliances. Considering that the U.S. retains tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel in the Japan’s defense – including a forward deployed carrier strike group – the U.S. deserves more Japanese support.
Ultimately, Japan must make a choice about how it wants to act in international affairs. Because Japan can either choose to defend its regional economic leadership in high-value goods and jobs, or it can choose to copy South Korea and accept Chinese hegemony. But Japan should know that such appeasement carries a heavy cost of both economic vulnerability, limited freedom, and territorial loss.
And Japan should know its risks here. Absent America at its side, Japan will lose more than the Senkaku islands to China.
