Arming Japan: Defense Production, Alliance Politics, and the Postwar Search for Autonomy

Despite its Peace Constitution and close security ties to the United States, Japan designs and produces an extensive array of high-tech missiles, tanks, warships and aircraft. As much as these weapons are a testimony to the advancement of Japanese technology, they are also powerful symbols of the potential for Japanese political and military self-reliance. Yet, despite all of the advanced military hardware, Japan has not developed an autonomous military-industrial complex in the post-World War II period.