Japan's changing security norms and perceptions since the 1990s/
Sook-Jong Lee
- 2007
Japan's Self-Defense Force (SDF) had been understood to exclusively defend Japan's territorial integrity. But this has since expanded to UN peacekeeping activities in the early 1990s, and through a series of policy and institutional changes was expanded further to provide support for U.S. troops in regional security and antiterrorist actions. As a result, these changes have since affected Japan's attitude towards defence and security issues. This article discusses this change in perception and the belief that Japan needs to strengthen its defense capability through closer military ties with its alliance partner and thus better to revise the peace constitution to legitimise the SDF and provide it with military flexiblity.