On May 25th, 2017, Tanaka, Akihiko, the president of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, gave a special lecture on “Japan’s Security Policy in Changing World System.” In the lecture, he not only discusses the characteristics of the changing world system and the specific features of East Asian within the world system, but also analyzed the evolution of Japan’s security policy. He explained that the ambivalent nature of East Asian international relations, characterized by both economic prosperity and geopolitical tensions, has shaped and fostered the evolution of Japan’s security policy since the end of the Cold War. He argues that while there have been many changes in the legal frameworks of Japan’s security policy and the Self Defense Forces, these changes are taking place within the framework of its alliance with the US and at the backdrop of still significant pacifist sentiments.
