The Evolution of Japan's Security Policy: From Pacifism to Proactive Pacifism

Dynamics and unpredictability are undeniable features of international politics, and this is clearly visible in the foreign policy of governments. In the same vein, Japan's foreign policy may seem like an example of a dynamic and changing foreign policy. Japan's defeat during the Second World War led to enormous changes in the country's foreign policy and its security status completely changed. In the meantime, and especially after the Cold War, one can see that the foreign policy of Japan has encountered many ups and downs and has sometimes shown contradictory behaviors; behaviors that, in Peter J. Katzenstein's interpretation is similar to " schizophrenia in foreign policy". Such Japan's contradictory behavior has made Japan's foreign policy a riddle and difficult to understand. This paper first attempts to investigate the long-term changes in Japan's foreign policy from the post-World War II to 2018. It then tries to find the answer to the question of what processes Japan's security identity has been going through? In response to this question, Japan's foreign policy eras are divided into three periods which include 1945-1990, 1990-2001, and 2001-2018, and it is argued that Japan has changed from a passive peaceful state to an active pacifist state. The research methodology followed is descriptive-analytic and is carried out through secondary research method