With Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda at the helm the Japanese ship of state is picking up momentum from a new tailwind. With the forcing of a bill continuing the refueling mission to Afghanistan in the Diet and military plans to deploy a missile defense shield in Tokyo and off of Japanese destroyers, increased military posturing has become the order of the day. For a country with a pacifist constitution it is curious that Japan's foreign policy should now be defined in terms of external security measures (however symbolic) backed by a flurry of defensive missile sites.
Japan is the second largest economy in the world and subsequently the second largest donor of humanitarian and developmental aid in the world. Of the 8.9 billion (USD) dispersed worldwide, nearly half goes to nations throughout Asia in Japan's 'back yard'. Japan has plenty of ways to influence world affairs and develop positive relations with neighboring nations other than through military means that might put the pacifist Constitution in jeopardy.
In other news, it turns out that a really good way to end world hunger is through indulging your self interest. The system works especially well if you happen to be studying for a GRE or just desiring a way to impress at parties (the inherent drive for any academic pursuit).
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It is true that Japan seems more militant recently. "That our country can participate again in the ‘war against terror’ truly has great significance," was a recent Fukuda statement as per the New York Times. Do you think that's a statement the Japanese government would have officially released even, say, five years ago? Two years ago?
Although another aspect of Japan's new Fukuda-esque foreign relations is that it may ease the strained relations with China that were historically in place and exacerbated under Abe. So it goes that Fukuda promises a more "Asia-Centered" policy.
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