The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a
treaty
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pe ...
that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or the other is attacked "in the territories under the administration of Japan". Over time, it has had the effect of establishing a
military alliance between the United States and Japan.
The current treaty, which took effect on June 23, 1960, revised and replaced an
earlier version of the treaty, which had been signed in 1951 in conjunction with the signing of the
San Francisco Peace Treaty that terminated
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
in Asia as well as the U.S.-led
Occupation of Japan (19451952). The revision of the treaty in 1960 was a highly contentious process in Japan, and widespread opposition to its passage led to the massive
Anpo protests, which were the largest popular protests in Japan's history.
The 1960 treaty significantly revised the U.S.-Japan security agreement in the direction of greater mutuality between the two nations. The original 1951 treaty had contained a provision permitting the United States to use forces based in Japan throughout
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both Geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The modern State (polity), states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. ...
without prior consultation with Japan, made no explicit promise to defend Japan if Japan were attacked, and even contained a clause allowing U.S. troops to intervene in Japanese domestic disputes. These defects were remedied in the revised version of the treaty in 1960. The amended treaty included articles delineating mutual defense obligations and requiring the US, before mobilizing its forces, to inform Japan in advance. It also removed the article permitting U.S. interference in Japanese domestic affairs.
The treaty also included general provisions for the further development of international understanding and improved economic collaboration between the two nations. These provisions became the basis for the establishment of the United States–Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), the United States–Japan Committee on Scientific Cooperation, and the Joint United States–Japan Committee on Trade and Economic Affairs, all three of which are still in operation in some form.
The U.S.-Japan Security Treaty has never been amended and thus has lasted longer in its original form than any other treaty between two
great powers since the 1648
Peace of Westphalia. The treaty had a minimum term of 10 years but provided that it would remain in force indefinitely unless one party gives one year's notice of wishing to terminate it.
Background
![Major US military bases in Japan](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Major_US_military_bases_in_Japan.svg)
The
original U.S.-Japan Security Treaty had been forced on Japan by the United States as a condition of ending the
U.S.-led military occupation of Japan following the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. It was signed on September 8, 1951, in tandem with the signing of the
San Francisco Peace Treaty ending World War II in Asia, and went into effect on April 28, 1952, in tandem with the end of the occupation of Japan. The original Security Treaty had no specified end date or means of abrogation, allowed US forces stationed in Japan to be used for any purpose anywhere in the "Far East" without prior consultation with the Japanese government, and had a clause specifically authorizing US troops to put down domestic protests in Japan. Perhaps most gallingly of all, the pact did not contain an article committing the United States to defend Japan if Japan were attacked by a third party.
The Japanese government began pushing for a revision to the treaty as early as 1952. However, the administration of U.S. president
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
resisted calls for revision until a growing anti-U.S. military base movement in Japan culminated in the
Sunagawa Struggle
The was a protest movement in Japan, starting in 1955 and continuing until 1957, against the expansion of the U.S. Air Force's Tachikawa Air Base into the nearby village of Sunagawa. Taking place at the peak of a growing anti-base movement, "Blo ...
of 1955-1957 and popular outrage in Japan in the aftermath of the
Girard Incident in 1957, which made deep dissatisfaction with the status quo more apparent. The United States agreed to a revision, negotiations began in 1958, and the new treaty was signed by Eisenhower and Kishi at a ceremony in Washington D.C. on January 19, 1960.
From a Japanese perspective, the new treaty was a significant improvement over the original treaty, committing the United States to defend Japan in an attack, requiring prior consultation with the Japanese government before dispatching US forces based in Japan overseas, removing the clause preauthorizing suppression of domestic disturbances, and specifying an initial 10-year term, after which the treaty could be abrogated by either party with one year's notice.
Because the new treaty was superior to the old one, Kishi expected it to be ratified in relatively short order. Accordingly, he invited Eisenhower to visit Japan beginning on June 19, 1960, in part to celebrate the newly ratified treaty. If Eisenhower's visit had proceeded as planned, he would have become the first sitting US president to visit Japan.
Terms
In Article 1, the treaty began by establishing that each country would seek to resolve any international disputes peacefully. The treaty also gave prominence to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
in dealing with aggression.
Article 2 generally called for greater collaboration between the two nations in terms of international relations and economics. At a summit meeting between U.S. President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
and Japanese Prime Minister
Hayato Ikeda
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.- ...
in June 1961, this clause was put into action with the formation of three cabinet level consultative committees - the United States–Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Interchange (CULCON), the United States–Japan Committee on Scientific Cooperation, and the Joint United States–Japan Committee on Trade and Economic Affairs, all three of which are still in operation in some form.
Article 4 suggests that the United States will consult with Japan in some manner on how it uses the U.S. troops based in Japan.
Article 5 commits the United States to defend Japan if it is attacked by a third party.
Article 6 explicitly grants the United States the right to base troops on Japanese soil, subject to a detailed "Administrative Agreement" negotiated separately.
Article 10 allows for the abrogation of the treaty, after an initial 10-year term, if either party gives one year's advance notice to the other of its wish to terminate the treaty.
The agreed minutes to the treaty specified that the
Japanese government would be consulted prior to major changes in United States force deployment in Japan or to the use of Japanese bases for combat operations other than to defend Japan itself. Also covered were the limits of both countries' jurisdictions over crimes committed in Japan by US military personnel.
Popular opposition
![1960 Protests against the United States-Japan Security Treaty 07](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/1960_Protests_against_the_United_States-Japan_Security_Treaty_07.jpg)
Although the 1960 treaty was manifestly superior to the original 1951 treaty, many Japanese from across the political spectrum resented the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil and hoped to get rid of the treaty entirely. An umbrella organization, the , was formed in 1959 to coordinate the actions of various citizen movements involved in opposing ratification of the revised treaty. The People's Council initially consisted of 134 member organizations in March 1959 and grew to have 1,633 affiliated organizations by March 1960. Member groups included labor unions, farmers' and teachers' unions, poetry circles, theater troupes, student and women's organizations, mothers' groups, groups affiliated with the
Japan Socialist Party
The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...
and the
Japan Communist Party
The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world.
The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...
, and even some conservative business groups. In total the People's Council carried out 27 separate events of nationwide mass protest from March 1959 to July 1960.
Faced with popular opposition in the streets and Socialist Party stonewalling in the
National Diet, Prime Minister Kishi grew increasingly desperate to pass the treaty in time for Eisenhower's scheduled arrival in Japan on June 19th. Finally on May 19, 1960, in the so-called "
May 19 Incident," Kishi suddenly called for a snap vote on the treaty. When Socialist Diet members attempted a sit-in to block the vote, Kishi introduced 500 policemen into the Diet and had them physically removed from the halls of the Diet by police, and rammed the treaty through with only members of his own party present.
![Hagerty Incident 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Hagerty_Incident_02.jpg)
Kishi's actions were widely perceived as anti-democratic, and provoked nationwide outrage from across the political spectrum. Thereafter, the anti-treaty protests swelled to massive size, with the
Sōhyō labor federation carrying out a series of nationwide strikes involving millions of labor unionists, large crowds marching in cities and towns throughout the nation, and tens of thousands of protesters gathering around the National Diet on nearly a daily basis. On June 10, in the so-called
Hagerty Incident, thousands of protesters mobbed a car carrying Eisenhower's press secretary James Hagerty, slashing its tires, smashing its tail lights, and rocking it back and forth for more than an hour before the occupants were rescued by a U.S. Marines helicopter. Finally on 15 June 1960, the radical student activists from the
Zengakuren
Zengakuren is a league of university student associations founded in 1948 in Japan. The word is an abridgement of which literally means "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations." Notable for organizing protests and marches, ...
nationwide student federation attempted to storm the Diet compound itself, precipitating a fierce battle with police in which a female Tokyo University student named
Michiko Kanba was killed.
Desperate to stay in office long enough to host Eisenhower's visit, Kishi hoped to secure the streets in time for Eisenhower's arrival by calling out the
Japan Self Defense Forces
The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, t ...
and tens of thousands of right-wing thugs that would be provided by his friend, the yakuza-affiliated right-wing "fixer"
Yoshio Kodama
was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist and a prominent figure in the rise of organized crime in Japan. The most famous '' kuromaku'', or behind-the-scenes power broker, of the 20th century, he was active in Japan's political arena and crim ...
. However, he was talked out of these extreme measures by his cabinet, and thereafter had no choice but to cancel Eisenhower's visit, for fears that his safety could not be guaranteed, and to announce his own resignation as Prime Minister, in order to quell the widespread popular anger at his actions.
Ratification and enactment
Despite the massive size achieved by the anti-treaty movement, the protests ultimately failed to stop the treaty. Although Kishi was forced to resign and Eisenhower's visit was cancelled, under Japanese law, the treaty was automatically approved 30 days after passing the Lower House of the Diet. Article 8 of the treaty stipulated that the new treaty would immediately enter into force once ratification instruments were exchanged between Japanese and American officials in Tokyo. The instruments were officially exchanged on June 23, 1960, at which point the new treaty took effect and the old treaty expired. According to foreign minister
Aiichirō Fujiyama
was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party and business executive.
A business executive who symbolized "big business" in Japan as president of Dai Nippon Sugar Manufacturing Co. and executive officer of Nitto Chemical Industry ...
, the official ratification instruments had to be smuggled to Kishi for his signature in a candy box, to avoid the notice of the protesters still mobbing his official residence.
However, once the treaty entered into force and Kishi resigned from office, the anti-treaty protest movement lost momentum and rapidly died away.
Aftermath
The anti-American aspect of the protests and the humiliating cancellation of Eisenhower's visit brought
U.S.-Japan relations to their lowest ebb since the end of World War II. The new U.S. President,
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...
, appointed sympathetic Japan expert and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
professor
Edwin O. Reischauer as ambassador to Japan, rather than a career diplomat, and invited the new Japanese prime minister,
Hayato Ikeda
was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years.
Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.- ...
, to be the first foreign leader to visit the United States in his term in office. At their June 1961 summit meeting, the two leaders agreed that henceforth the two nations would consult much more closely as allies, along lines similar to the relationship between the United States and Great Britain. Back in Japan, Ikeda took a much more conciliatory stance toward the political opposition, indefinitely shelving Kishi's plans to revise the
Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution
is a clause in the national Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution came into effect on 3 May 1947, following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces th ...
, and announcing the
Income Doubling Plan with the explicit goal of redirecting the nation's energies away from the contentious treaty issue and toward a nationwide drive for rapid economic growth.
The difficult process of securing the passage of the revised treaty and the violent protests it caused contributed to a culture of secret pacts (密約, ''mitsuyaku'') between the two nations. Going forward, rather than putting contentious issues to a vote, the two nations secretly negotiated to expand the scope of the Security Treaty without allowing a vote. Secret pacts negotiated in the 1960s and not brought to light until decades later allowed U.S. naval vessels carrying nuclear weapons to "transit" through Japanese ports, allowed nuclear powered U.S. vessels to vent radioactive wastewater in Japanese waters, and allowed the U.S. to introduce nuclear weapons into U.S. bases on Okinawa even after its reversion to Japan in 1972, among other secret deals.
Throughout the decade of the 1960s, left-wing activists looked forward to the end of the revised treaty's initial 10-year term in 1970 as an opportunity to try to persuade the Japanese government to abrogate the treaty. In 1970, in the wake of the
1968-1969 student riots in Japan, a number of student groups, civic groups, and the anti-Vietnam War organization
Beheiren
Beheiren (ベ平連, short for ベトナムに平和を!市民連合, ''Betonamu ni Heiwa o! Shimin Rengo'', "The Citizen's League for Peace in Vietnam") was a Japanese "New Left" activist group that existed from 1965 to 1974. As a loose coalit ...
held a series of protest marches against the Security Treaty. However, prime minister
Eisaku Satō
was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1972. He is the third-longest serving Prime Minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as Prime Minister.
Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a membe ...
(who was Kishi's younger brother) opted to ignore the protests completely and allow the treaty to automatically renew. Since that time, no attempt has been made to abrogate the treaty by either party, and U.S. bases remain a fixture on Japanese soil. As of 2010, there were still some 85 facilities housing 44,850 U.S. military personnel and 44,289 dependents.
Ongoing opposition in Okinawa
![US military bases in Okinawa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/US_military_bases_in_Okinawa.svg)
A central issue in the debate over the continued U.S. military presence is the heavy concentration of troops in the small Japanese prefecture of
Okinawa
is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi).
Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. U.S. military bases cover about one fifth of Okinawa and house around 75% of the U.S. forces in Japan. Base-related frictions, disputes, and environmental problems have left many Okinawans feeling that while the security agreement may be beneficial to the United States and Japan as a whole, they bear a disproportionate share of the burden.
One contentious issue to many Okinawans is the noise and environmental pollution created by the US forces in Japan. Prolonged exposure to high-decibel noise pollution from the American military jets flying over residential areas in Okinawa has been found to cause heart problems, disrupt sleep patterns, and damage cognitive skills in children. Excessive noise lawsuits filed in 2009 by Okinawa's residents against
Kadena Air Base
(IATA: DNA, ICAO: RODN) is a highly strategic United States Air Force base in the towns of Kadena and Chatan and the city of Okinawa, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is often referred to as the "Keystone of the Pacific" because of its highl ...
and
Marine Corps Air Station Futenma
is a United States Marine Corps base located in Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan, northeast of Naha, on the island of Okinawa. It is home to approximately 3,000 Marines of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing and other units, and has been a U.S. military ai ...
resulted in awards of $57 million and $1.3 million to residents, respectively. Toxic chemical runoff from U.S. bases, live-fire drills using
depleted uranium rounds, and base construction and expansion activities have polluted Okinawa's water supply and damaged Okinawa's once-pristine coral reefs, reducing their economic value for fishing and tourism.
The most powerful opposition in Okinawa, however, stemmed from criminal acts committed by US service members and their dependents, with the latest example being the 1995 kidnapping and molestation of a 12-year-old Okinawan girl by two Marines and a Navy corpsman. In early 2008, U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice apologized after a series of crimes involving American troops in Japan, including the rape of a girl of 14 by a marine on Okinawa. The US military also imposed a temporary 24-hour curfew on military personnel and their families to ease the anger of local residents.
These grievances, among others, have sustained a large and enduring anti-Security Treaty movement in Okinawa.
Public support
Despite the strong Okinawan opposition to the US military presence on the island, there is support for the agreement in Japan as a whole. Although views of the treaty were fiercely polarized when the treaty was first approved in 1960, acceptance of the U.S.-Japan alliance has grown over time. According to a 2007 poll, 73.4% of Japanese citizens appreciated the U.S.-Japan alliance and welcomed the presence of U.S. forces in Japan.
Treaty coverage
In 2012, the US clarified in a statement regarding the
Senkaku Islands dispute
The Senkaku Islands dispute, or Diaoyu Islands dispute, is a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan, the Diaoyu Islands in the People's Republic of China (PRC), and Tiaoyutai Islands in t ...
that the treaty covers the
Senkaku Islands and requires the Americans to defend them.
On April 19, 2019, Japan and the United States confirmed that
cyberattacks
A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...
are also covered by the treaty. The two nations also promised to increase defense cooperation for outer space warfare, cyberwarfare, and electronic warfare.
See also
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Anpo protests
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U.S.–Japan Alliance
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Japan–United States relations
International relations between Japan and the United States began in the late 18th and early 19th century with the diplomatic but Unequal treaty#Japan and Korea, force-backed missions of U.S. ship captains James Glynn and Matthew C. Perry to th ...
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United States Forces Japan
is a subordinate unified command of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). It was activated at Fuchū Air Station in Tokyo, Japan, on 1 July 1957 to replace the Far East Command. USFJ is commanded by the Commander, US Forces ...
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Defence policy of Japan
The Government of Japan has been making various efforts on its security policy which include: the establishment of the National Security Council (NSC), the adoption of the National Security Strategy (NSS), and the National Defense Program Guideli ...
*
Security Treaty between the United States and Japan
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Nuclear umbrella
The "nuclear umbrella" is a guarantee by a nuclear weapons state to defend a non-nuclear allied state. The context is usually the security alliances of the United States with Japan, South Korea, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (much ...
References
Citations
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Treaty Of Mutual Cooperation And Security Between The United States And Japan
1960 in Japan
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Foreign relations of Post-war Japan
1951 in the United States
1951 in Japan
Japan–United States relations
Japan–United States treaties
Mutual Cooperation
Mutual Cooperation
Treaties concluded in 1960
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United States Armed Forces in Okinawa Prefecture
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June 1960 events in Asia