U.S. Military Bases and Protests in Japan:

Level of Presence and Economic Benefits

Abstract

Under what conditions are residents of Japan likely to protest against the Japanese government regarding security issues? I discuss this question using data from 47 prefectures (2005-2018), focusing on the possible impacts of two factors that existing research on base politics has examined: level of U.S. military presence and its economic benefits for the residents. Additionally, I included several variables that represent the level of presence of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) in models for comparison. My results show that, on the one hand, the larger the U.S. military presence in a prefecture, the more protests are likely to occur there. On the other hand, the results do not support the hypothesis that the presence of the JSDF has a positive influence on the number of protests. Moreover, the results raise questions as to the validity of the hypothesis that the economic benefits for the residents, related to the U.S. military presence, have a negative impact on the occurrence of the type of protest. These findings indicate that the foreign military that a government decides to host to reduce the burden at the international level can ironically increase the burden on the government at the domestic level.