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RésuméDans la dernière décennie, la classe politique japonaise a procédé aux adaptations juridiques nécessaires pour associer le pays aux opérations de paix de l’ONU. Les débats sur l’Irak, le Cambodge, ou les retombées du 11 septembre, ont ainsi débouché sur un changement progressif de la posture internationale du Japon : en ce qui concerne son rôle global, et en ce qui touche à sa sécurité. Les bases du pacifisme politique et juridique hérité de l’après-guerre sont ainsi questionnées.

For the past decade, Japanese foreign and security policy has been confronted with a series of external and national events conducting to a new rationale on international and national defence posture. While the political and legislative legacy since the end of the Second World War had been rather balanced with compromises to the pacifist norm and to the bilateral security relationship with the United States, the law-making process on defence issues has been strengthened, since the early 1990s, following the pragmatic/realist assessment that Japan needs new legal instruments, to react to identified potential external threats, and a larger autonomy while confirming but clarifying the terms of the US-Japan military cooperation within the international contribution to peace. The current resolute engagement of Japanese policy-makers on defence and security issues is part of the progressive normalization of the country that could signify, if the basic pacifist posture is maintained, the confirmation of Japan as a civilian power with defensive military tools.