Japan's Drift of Political and Military Affairs due to the Beginning of the Special Operation in Ukraine

The current thesis "Japan's drift of political and military affairs due to the beginning of the Special Operation in Ukraine" is dedicated to significant changes in Japan's perception of country’s own national security in connection with Russia's Special Military Operation in Ukraine. The SMO has provoked fundamental shifts in the structure of interactions in the international system, including the phenomenon of Japan's remilitarisation. The author examines this phenomenon through the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) in its modern state. The chronological framework for the analysis is limited from February 2022 - the beginning of the Special Operation until April 2024. However, the author resorts to analysing the situation preceding the these rapid changes, drawing on a documentary base from 2013, when the previous National Security Strategy (NSS) was adopted, which initially determined the course towards the country's militarisation. The conclusions show that as early as 2013, the Japan Self-Defense Forces began their transformation to acquire new capabilities, including the deployment of high-mobility units, and since 2022, they have acquired offensive weaponry for the first time since the end of World War II. Japan is striving for an autonomous military-industrial complex and technological sovereignty, as the study shows, such attempts are more than successful. The Special Operation in Ukraine has caused a sharp acceleration in the pace of transformation of the Self-Defense Forces, but Japan does not consider Russia a direct military threat solely, and uses Russia's actions as a justification for building up its own military power, while not losing the image of a peaceful country driven only by external factors to revitalize its armed forces.