This book offers a comprehensive overview of Japan's national security institutions and policy today, including a detailed discussion of Japan's regional security environment and its alliance with the United States in the context of the Democratic Party of Japan's rise to power in August 2009.• Includes a foreword by Rust Deming, retired U.S. State Department official• Contains reprints of 14 original government documents including major treaties and policy statements• Provides a chronological coverage of over 150 key events in Japanese security from 1853 to 2010 • The bibliography draws on the most important sources in English and Japanese, plus dozens of government documents from both countries• A glossary defines terms of special importance to Japanese security policy, such as the "five PKO principles" or the "three nonnuclear principles" • Provides short biographies of eight key figures in postwar Japanese security policy