Dear Colleagues,

Please join us for the next Japanese Politics Online Seminar Series (JPOSS) meeting!

U.S. ET: December 15 (Thursday), 8-9 PM

JST: December 16 (Friday), 10-11 AM

Event page

Zoom Registration

Paper: "The Pretty Pragmatic Public: Japanese Public Opinion on Self Defense Forces and Security Policies"

Presenters: Yusaku Horiuchi (Dartmouth College) and Atsushi Tago (Waseda University)
Discussants: Shoko Kohama (Hokkaido University) and Jonathan Renshon (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Chair: Amy Catalinac (New York University)

Abstract:
Although the need for the U.S. to work with Japan during a future crisis is ever increasing, we do not yet have a sufficient understanding of what Japanese citizens think about security policies and possible military actions. We leveraged on an extremely rare opportunity in which the Japanese government decided to dispatch its de facto military, the Self-Defense Forces (SDFs), overseas for a high-risk operation, the evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021. Specifically, we conducted "real-time" survey experiments in this context to test some hypotheses relevant to the theoretical literature on international relations: reliability of alliances, civilian control, and sensitivity to casualty. Furthermore, we also fielded other survey experiments to examine Japanese people's attitudes when they face various hypothetical crises. Our analysis suggests that Japanese citizens are "pretty pragmatic" in their opinions on foreign policy issues. We discuss nuanced differences in their attitudes compared to Americans' attitudes, which existing studies suggest as "pretty prudent" (Jentleson, 1992; Jentleson and Britton, 1998).

We plan to circulate the paper about one week in advance. I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving break.

Best wishes,

Shinju Fujihira

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Shinju Fujihira, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Executive Director, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA)
Harvard University