Dr. Corey Wallace
(University of Auckland, New Zealand)

"Generation Change and Japanese Security Policy: Continuity or Change?"

January 6, 2016

A common media narrative is that the younger generation in Japan are less aware of their history and less enamoured with Japan’s post-war pacifism, and thus likely to be more hawkish than their pacifist forebears. This assumption is often carried over uncritically into academic research, as well as policy analysis and advocacy both supportive and critical of Japan’s security policy evolution. However, many commentators were surprised to see that opposition to recently passed security legislation in Japan had a strong youth protest element. Corey Wallace's research uses both qualitative and quantitative data to analyse public opinion and elite narratives regarding security policy change and preferences in Japan. This research provides insights into how Japan’s peace nation identity has changed over time, and how generational change in post-Abe Japan will further affect Japan’s security policy evolution.

Corey Wallace is Postdoctoral Fellow with the Einstein Project East Asia Security.

Der Vortrag wurde gemeinsam von der Japanologie und der Graduate School of East Asian Studies angeboten.