TOKYO – The Japanese, who inhabit one of the safest countries in the world, have been brutally reminded that the world is a dangerous place.
In a shock to a country that can feel insulated from distant geopolitical problems, two of its own have reportedly been killed by Islamic radicals in Syria, the latest apparently beheaded in a video posted online this weekend by militant websites.
This island nation closed itself to the outside world for two centuries under samurai rule. Then rising militarism and occupation of neighboring countries preceding World War II had disastrous consequences, driving Japan back into an isolationist mindset. It has ventured out in fits and starts for the past two decades, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing for Japan to play a larger international role, most controversially by seeking to loosen constitutional restraints on its military.
As Japan has learned before, venturing out inevitably has risks. The question is whether those risks will drive Japan back into its shell.
Analysts say it is too early to predict the impact of the Islamic State hostage crisis on government policy and the public psyche. Past experience suggests that Japan may, after some handwringing, continue what has been a very gradual expansion of its military role. A major test could come in the spring, when the parliament is expected to take up Abe’s proposals to allow its Self-Defense Forces to do more.
“Contrary to what some people are arguing, the ongoing hostage crisis will have little to no effect as far as official policy or public opinion is concerned,” predicts Jun Okumura, an independent analyst.
It’s not the first time Japan faced such a crisis. In 2004, it sent several hundred troops to Iraq to help in the reconstruction. Though it was a noncombat role, the overseas deployment was a significant break with past policy. It required special legislation and stretched the self-defense limits imposed by the postwar constitution – some say too far.
At home, many opposed the deployment. In Iraq, half a dozen Japanese were kidnapped. One was found decapitated, his body wrapped in an American flag, after then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused demands to pull the troops out of Iraq.
Such violence is shocking anywhere, but particularly so in Japan, which has among the world’s lowest murder and gun ownership rates. The troubles of the Mideast can seem farther away than in the United States or Europe. Unlike New York or Paris, Tokyo hasn’t been attacked by radicalized Muslims. The most infamous terrorist act in recent times was homegrown, the release of poisonous gas in the Tokyo subway system by a religious cult in 1995.
“It is unusual for Japan, which has not participated in the military operations (against the Islamic State group), to be targeted,” the Mainichi, one of Japan’s major newspapers, observed in an editorial. It concluded: “We no longer live in a time when we can feel safe, just because we are Japanese.”
