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Japan's ‘National Resilience Plan’: Its Promise and Perils in the Wake of the Election
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2025
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This article highlights Japan's National Resilience (“Kokudo Kyoujinka”) strategy, a very important, multi-trillion-yen initiative that was (incredibly) ignored during the campaign preceding the December 14 election and continues to be. Like most countries' efforts to bolster resilience against accelerating climate change and other patent threats, the content of Japan's plan is a work in progress. But the scale and scope of Japan's strategy is unparalleled, as it is slated to grow from YEN 3.6 trillion in FY 2014 to YEN 4.54 trillion in FY 2015. Properly done, it could be of immense benefit to Japan's resilience and sustainable growth prospects as well as to the global community. However, in the absence of any clear direction to Abenomics, Japan's initiative could be largely squandered on roads and other concrete-intensive projects. Moreover, the programme's core agencies, especially the newly established Association for Resilience Japan, could be conscripted in Japan's revisionists' fight for constitutional reform and the attack on pacificism and critical thinking in civil society.
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References
Notes
1 The latter number is the requested total as of August 2014. See p. 4 of (in Japanese) “2015 National Resilience-Related Budget Request Outline,” Japan Cabinet National Resilience Promotion Office, August 2014.
2 On this, see “Unified opposition party eyed to challenge LDP,” The Japan News, December 16, 2014.
3 See (in Japanese) “72% Declare the Reason for the LDP's Massive Win to be 'Lack of an Attractive Opposition,” Asahi Shimbun Poll,“ Asahi Shimbun, December 18, 2014.
4 See (in Japanese) “Upper House Election: Abe declares ‘I want to press for constitutional reform’,” Mainichi Shimbun, December 15, 2014.
5 As Daniel Sneider, associate director for research of Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), argues: “Many people who wanted to file a protest vote against Abe chose the JCP because they did not see the DPJ or others clearly differentiating themselves from the LDP,” in Peter Ennis, “Sneider: This election was all about power,” Dispatch Japan, December 18, 2014.
6 See Reiji Yoshida, “Low voter turnout mars Abe's claim of election triumph,” Japan Times, December 17, 2014.
7 See “Japan's snap election result: Romping home,” The Economist, December 15, 2014.
8 See Anthony Rowley, “In Japan Election, Abe Victory Not Quite a Referendum on Abenomics,” Institutional Investor, December 17, 2014.
9 On this argument, see Masaaki Iwamoto, Toru Fujioka and Kyoko Shimodoi, “Japan Fiscal Fundamentalists Face Weakened Sway With Abe Win,” Bloomberg, December 17, 2014.
10 Mari Yamaguchi and Ken Moritsugi, “Big win could help Abe pursue nationalist goals,” Japan Today, December 15, 2014.
11 For example, the title of one article (in Japanese) by Mori Seiyu is itself telling: “The False Façade of the LDP National Resilience Bill,” JB Press, March 13, 2013.
12 The Association is in the midst of producing plans for a variety of different programme areas. Its website is here.
13 See (in Japanese) “Assessing 2 Years of the Abe Government's Recovery and Disaster-Reduction,” Genron NPO, November 30, 2014.
14 Kashiwagi is a member of the Japan Association for Resilience and is also a central figure in Japan's smart communities. On the latter, see Andrew DeWit, “Japan's Radical Energy Technocrats: Structural Reform Through Smart Communities, the Feed-in Tariff and Japanese-Style ‘Stadtwerke‘”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 47, No. 2, December 1, 2014.
15 David Malakoff, “Obama to Propose $1 Billion Climate Resilience Fund,” Science, February 14, 2014.
16 See “Hurricane/Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy, October 22–29, 2012 (Service Assessment),” United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service, May 2013.
17 See “WATCH: Tsunami-like power of Yolanda's storm surge,” ABS-CBN News, November 17, 2013.
18 See NOAA's website.
19 On these items, see the Ecoshock Radio December 17, 2014 interview with Kathy Miles, author of “Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy”.