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[politicians] must carefully deliberate what the role of the SDF is for the sake
of actually contributing to peace
(conversation with Taka, 21/07/2004). This
was aview taken by all the young supporters to whom I spoke; they were against
changing Article 9 and stressed the necessity of comprehensive debate about
whether to add new provisions to the article about possible peacekeeping
activities overseas. Dispatching the SDF overseas as a peacekeeping force
turned out to be a much bigger political issue in Japan than the Japanese
political support for the US-led invasion of Iraq. Not many had seriously
expected the break-up of the US
'
Japan security alliance, but there was wide-
spread debate and opposition to dispatching the SDF. This is not to diminish
the widespread sentiment that Japan was too much at the disposal of its big
brother, the USA. Many people undoubtedly would have liked to see Japan
engage in a more independent decision-making process. That Komeito took
the view that the SDF could be employed for peacekeeping and reconstruc-
tion under the auspices of the UN was not a new idea and was something
with which supporters, in theory, agreed. However, many people were against
sending any Japanese person into a situation where they could lose their lives.
Yet, wider discursive changes about the role of the SDF were becoming
apparent. These changes leaning towards a more active involvement of Japan
overseas went against memories about the Gulf War (1990
-
91), during which
Japan was heavily criticised by the international community for merely con-
tributing
-
financially (cf. Stockwin 2003; Edstrom 2004). Before the loss of
power of the LDP in 1993, rhetoric of contributing to peace and prosperity
was common in policy speeches; post-1993, particularly in 2003, the emphasis
was on
(Edstrom
2004). Iokibe (1999: 229) has argued that the inability to get legislation passed
that would allow Japanese troops to be a force for a more active contribution
to peace was a severe blow to the Japanese ambitions to play a more
central role on the international stage before the Gulf War. At the time,
Komeito had supported such a role for the SDF. While for right-wing politi-
cians support for revising Article 9 has been an objective for decades (inter-
view with Wade Huntley, 08/03/2004), a wider discursive change in the public
sphere that Japan should make more than monetary contributions to the
international community was taking place with the current Iraq War. Dis-
patching the SDF overseas was regarded as the
'
active
'
contribution rather than
'
chequebook diplomacy
'
first step towards enhancing the
probability of revising Article 9, to allow Japan to have the right to collective
self-defence.
The many discussions of the merits and demerits of dispatching the SDF
revealed a new emphasis on de
ning
'
peace
'
as needing an active approach
rather than the paci
st stance of not getting involved that had dominated in
Japan since the end of World War II.
peace now meant using the
SDF for peacekeeping and humanitarian reconstruction.
'
Active
'
peace
became increasingly viewed within a framework of passivity, and analysed as
somewhat irresponsible given what was perceived as new international threats
of terrorism. Both the LDP and Komeito employed this rhetoric, as did the
'
Paci
st
'
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