Japanese defense and security policies have often been at odds with international norms. When you consider the war renouncing constitution, the popular response to the 1990-1 Gulf crisis, or the limitations on Japanese Self-Defense Forces when taking part in United Nations peace keeping operations in the early 1990s, Japan appears to be an anomoly in the international community. This is the first study that seeks to explain the nature of Japanese defense and security policies by taking account of how the people have responded to militarisation and demilitarisation processes in the postwar period, especially in the 1980s and early 1990s. Glenn Hook shows the Japan is moving towards being a normal' military state and explains how, even fifty years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the promulgation of anti-militaristic constitution a few years later, the Japanese people are still influenced in their responses to defense and security policies by these twin experiences. This study challenges many of the preconceived notions on Japanese defense and security policies and the policy making process in Japan.