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.