Japan’s Security Strategies Towards China in the Scope of Defense White Papers, 1972-2014

This project explored Japan’s changing security attitudes from 1972 to 2014 under the scope of its official defense white papers, using a method of sentiment analysis. Consistent with previous studies, Japan was highly cooperative with China during the period from 1972 to 1992, a period rightfully characterized as the “Golden Age.” Starting from 1993, faced with a rising China, Japan maintained an overall neutral posture on the official and legal level towards China, but subtle attitudinal changes could be seen. While Japan had praised China for its cooperative efforts to denuclearize the Korean peninsula and active involvement in UN peacekeeping, it also pointed to China’s covert purposes for engaging in such activities and repeatedly raised concerns about a perceived violation of state sovereignty by China on the “Senkaku Islands,” as well as over Beijing’s human rights issues and lack of transparency in military spending. The current project shows that Japan has continued to adopt non-confrontation, non-provocative language even when describing its disputes with China.