Abstract: This research discusses why Japan’s “Basic Defense Force Concept” adopted earlier was maintained amidst the widely-discussed demise of détente and the arrival of the “Second Cold War” between the United States and the Soviet Union entering the 1980s. From the perspective that perceives the Basic Defense Force Concept as a “beyond-the-threat theory,” the defense controversies that unfolded during the Second Cold War were waged between the Basic Defense Force Concept and criticisms of the Basic Defense Force Concept resembling the “counter-threat theory” based on the increasing threat recognition. As a result, the Basic Defense Force Concept was not abandoned, which probably might finish with the victory of the Basic Defense Force Concept against the “counter-threat theory.” However, that was actually not the case. The Basic Defense Force Concept began to coexist with the “Idea of Defense Force Reinforcement,” a competing theory to the Basic Defense Force Concept that took prominence during the Second Cold War, due to the “Idea of Attached Table Early Achievement” and the “Idea of Attached Table Revision and Concept Change,” considered to be a competing theory to the Basic Defense Force Concept as well, due to the “Idea of Attached Table Revision and Concept Continuation.” Full text available here.
