The Power of Japan

When looking at Japan through the eyes of a realist, the extent of their power is by far the most important aspect to observe. And the most obvious measure of power is a state’s military; a category where Japan lacks power. They do have the Japan Self-Defense Forces; however they are mostly confined to the island and have left only to assist in peacekeeping operations led by the UN. They are also on hand in case the current island dispute with China elevates into something greater. Japan also doesn’t spend much money on weapons, and has an aversion towards weapons of mass destruction seeing as they’ve experienced first-hand the destruction they can wreak.

     Where Japan lacks power in military, they make up for in trade. They have the 3^rd largest GDP in the world thanks to the tools of their trade. Japan imports raw materials, then manufactures and exports cars, electronics, personal tech (phones, games, gps systems), optic fibers, and many more innovative products.

     Since power is measured not just in size and quantity, but also potential, Japan’s biggest influence over the world comes from their reliability as a resource. Aside from the current argument with China, the military doesn’t get much action other than the peacekeeping missions (that Japan hasn’t been fully participating in). This lack of participation is going to weaken the power that Japan has, and should another large scale world war erupt, it will be interesting to see how much of Japan’s are considered to be a matter of sensitivity, where they are the only suppliers of a product, rather than vulnerability, where other states can get the products elsewhere leaving Japan in trouble.

Welcome to Japan

     Japan’s current leader is Emperor Akihito, who has been the head of state since 1989 when he succeeded his father. However, since the implementation of a constitution established in 1947, the emperor has only served as a figurehead. Since Emperor Akihito can only serve as a symbol of the state and the unity of the people, the prime minister serves as the dominant leader politically and IR wise. The current prime minister is Yoshihiko Nada. Prime Minister Nada came into office in August of 2011, after his predecessor, Naoto Kan, resigned after it became obvious that he could not contain the current economic and nuclear crises (after effects of the major earthquake and tsunami combo that devastated the island country earlier in March 2011).

     Nada is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (JDP), which came into power during August of 2009 and broke the 50 year consecutive streak of conservative rule in Japan. Unfortunately, the JDP is losing power and support from the inability to fix Japan’s current state of crisis and Nada’s reinstatement of the state’s nuclear program. After the earthquake and tsunami, the nuclear plants of Japan were quite unstable and much effort in the following month was placed towards stabilizing and shutting them down. It will be interesting to see how the Japanese government will handle this situation and if the JDP will continue to stay in power.

     Japan’s current relationships with other countries are mostly peaceful and the increase of trade between it and other countries has been improving the world economy, however there is still some tension in the air from the way Japan treated other countries during WWII: especially China. Currently there is a conflict between the two concerning ownership of an island.