Japan's search for autonomous defense production, 1945-1993: Arms technology and alliance

This thesis presents a history of post-war Japanese efforts to establish autonomous defense production capabilities. The goal is to explain the relationship between national techno-economic strategies and alliance politics.; Beginning with the modernization efforts of the Meiji Period, Japan's leadership has placed the development of technological and industrial capabilities on an equal plane with military capabilities in terms of defining security and autonomy in the international system. With the end of the Cold War and the loss of a common external threat, there is a danger that this emphasis on technology as security might lead to increasing friction and possibly an adversarial relationship with the United States.; In exploring the post-war history of defense production in Japan, this thesis confirms that Japanese policymakers have used the defense budget to pursue technological autonomy, particularly in the aerospace industry. This goal has been driven by technonationalism, industrial policy, military concerns over maintenance and logistics; and a desire to develop greater political independence from the United States. However, this thesis also reveals that there are considerable and growing opportunity costs involved in the pursuit of defense industrial autonomy for Japan. Aerospace and defense technology is diffusing across borders at an increasing rate; autonomy threatens the delicate national consensus for defense spending built on the premise of close alliance relations with the United States; and independent defense policies frighten Asian powers and restrict Japan's freedom of action in the region's political and economic spheres.; In short, while there has been a constituency for developing autonomous defense production that reflects diverse interests ranging from the military and ideological to the technological, there has been no national consensus on a strategy for such autonomy.; Instead, through a series of procurement battles beginning with the F-86 in the 1950's and continuing through the 1970 Fourth Defense Plan to the FSX crisis in the late 1980's, an equilibrium has evolved that balances the quest for technological capabilities with the importance of maintaining alliance relations. However, this balance hinges delicately on U.S. actions. U.S. pressure to either contain Japanese defense-related technology or expand Japanese defense capabilities fuels the Japanese pursuit of autonomous defense production. In contrast, U.S. efforts to develop fuller technological, military and political cooperation energize the alliance and dissipate Japanese technonationalism.