Japan has long been characterised as a passive actor in international politics, reacting to rather than acting in the face of developments in the foreign and security political realms. Consequently, the majority of studies focus on the question of whether or not and  how Japan ‘normalises’ whereby normalisation is understood as conforming to modern notions of statehood. Japan’s Maritime Security Strategy: The Japan Coast Guard and Maritime Outlaws is a significant contribution to scholarship on the foreign and security politics of Japan and international relations of the Asia-Pacific. This is not only because Lindsay Black takes on theseestablished views but also because he does so through a thorough analysis of several of the most controversially debated issues in Japan’s contemporary security politics. Different from mainstream accounts, Black finds that Japan has been active in promoting norms that regulate international politics. Black’s argument rests on the finding that the roles of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and the Japan Coast Guard (JCG), contrary to conventional wisdom, differ and should not be conflated.

Inthis book,Black combines a solid conceptual framework with rich empirical data. In developing the framework, he first problematises accounts of established English School theorists. Through the application of Western standards, these tend to reproduce orientalist views. Still, the distinction between normality and abnormality and between insiders and outsiders is central to Black’s work. The book’s main conceptual tool is that of outlaws. Outlaws are actors who do not conform to the norms and rules of international society as defined by great powers. As such, outlaws, outsiders or ‘others’ are an inherent part of and indispensable for defining what the international society is, what behaviour is acceptable and what is not. While outlaws are seen as threatening the global order, it would hardly be possible to define this order without referring to actors who do not conform to it. Thus, the label ‘outlaw’ applies to state actors such as North Korea as well as to non-state actors such as pirates and terrorists. By responding to outlaw threats, great powers act as norm entrepreneurs in international society and Japan has done so in several respects.

After discussing the often unaddressed root causes of outlaw behaviour, Black analyzes three cases. The first shows how the deployment of the Japan Coast Guard in response to North Korean ‘spy ship’ incursions came to play a central part in Japan’s evolving two-pronged maritime security strategy, next to strengthening the US-Japan alliance. The second case concerns piracy in Southeast Asia and the Gulf of Aden. Here, the Japanese state and non-state agencies have been particularly successful in engaging regional governments, leading the way to developing local capacity and establishing multilateral frameworks through non-military means. The third case of counter-terrorism and non-proliferation at sea shows that Japan has, despite the greater role of militaries and US pressure, adhered to its dual strategy of maritime security centred on the Japan Coast Guard on the one hand and the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on the other.

Shedding light on these  dimensions of Japanese foreign and security policy, the book not only complements existing scholarship on Japan’s role in the international politics of the Asia-Pacific, it also raises an important question: why is evidence for Japan’s active contribution to international order or its ‘normalness’  so often neglected? In this respect, it would have been insightful if Black had elaborated more on the structure of international society and Japan’s position in it. Extending his initial point about the orientalist tendencies of international relations theorizing and by extension, also the practice of international politics, may have helped to account for the reasons why North Korean ‘spy ships’, pirates and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction figure so prominently in Japanese security politics. Moreover, while it is not necessary to rehearse the traditional military dimension of maritime security, a clearer picture of the structure of international society would have enabled the book to incorporate what has become the biggest issue for Japan’s security policy-makers: China. The case of maritime disputes in the East China Sea and the important role that the Japan Coast Guard plays in it would likely further strengthen Black’s argument about Japan’s two-pronged maritime security strategy and demonstrate the merit of critical English School approaches to Japan’s foreign relations.

Japan’s Maritime Security Strategy: The Japan Coast Guard and Maritime Outlaws is part of a growing body of critical literature on Japan’s foreign relations. It aligns well with research that uses conceptual frameworks such as securitization, relational power, or the Foucauldian production of danger. The book is a particularly interesting read for scholars specializing in Japan’s international relations, East Asian regionalism and Asia-Pacific security.

Lindsay Black, Japan’s Maritime Security Strategy: The Japan Coast Guard and Maritime Outlaws, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014

Reviewed by Dr. Christian Wirth, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University