Threats to the security of Japan and the world are manifold, but for Japan the "enemy" is war.

For thirty years a United States bearing global strategic responsibility and a Japan committed to "no war/no collective security" have, despite apparent differences and frequent setbacks, collaborated so successfully that East Asia has become the growth miracle of the developing world. During these years the backdrop for Japan's strategic calculations—and its hesitations—has been its concept of "Comprehensive National Security." It is important, then, for us in the West to understand just what this concept means.