Achieving Compatibility of Pacifism and Self-Protection: Japan’s National Defence Strategy

In his remarks to the IIEA, Dr Declan Downey discusses how since the promulgation of its Constitution in 1947, Japan has forsworn war and the use of nuclear weapons, maintained military neutrality, and pursued a pacifist foreign policy. Yet, it has not adopted ‘the ostrich pose’ regarding recent and emerging challenges to international stability. Over the past decade, successive governments have augmented national defence capabilities, and most recently, on 16 December 2022, the current government of Premier Kishida launched its new national defence policy,  ‘The Three Strategic Documents’, which has received considerable public support. This presentation explores how this transformation has occurred, how it may be implemented, and the challenges that it would face. Further, Dr Downey also discusses how Japan may provide pointers as to how another pacifist and neutral island nation off the coast of a major continental world power might learn how to meet the same challenges of current global realpolitik. This event has been organised in conjunction with the Embassy of Japan, Ireland. About the Speaker: Declan M. Downey was awarded the Ph.D. in Legal & Diplomatic History from the University of Cambridge in 1993. Since 1995, he has been lecturing in European and Japanese Diplomatic History at University College Dublin, where he coordinates the BCL degree programme in Law with History. In 1995, he initiated the first ever Japanese History course at degree level in Ireland at UCD. He also supervised the first ever doctoral dissertation in Japanese Studies in Ireland. A former trustee of the Chester Beatty Library (2012-2017), he is closely involved with Japanese cultural and academic events in Ireland. In 2009, he was the first Irish citizen to be elected to membership of the Spanish Royal Academy of History. Since 2018, he has been an Assessor for the Publications Board of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. His extensive publications and leading role in major international research projects have been recognised with international distinctions and awards, including Austrian and Spanish state honours, and the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Commendation in 2020. In Autumn 2022, Dr Downey was the first Irish academic to be awarded the prestigious Gaimushō Visiting Scholarship, which he took up in Tokyo during his semestral research leave from UCD last Spring.