Saturday, December 11, 2004
Japan signals key military shift
* Tokyo ends ban on military exports * Considers China and North Korea as potential threats * Plans tighter entry checks to curb terrorism
TOKYO: Japan took another step away from its post-World War II pacifism on Friday by ending its decades-old ban on military exports and telling defense planners to regard China and North Korea as potential threats.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s cabinet agreed to allow military sales - only to the United States and for missile defense - a day after it extended Japan’s ground-breaking troop deployment in Iraq for another year.
The policy change on Friday came in the form of a set of guidelines for defense policymakers, updated for the first time in nine years, along with a five-year outline for military procurements set to begin from April 2005.
The guidelines approved by the cabinet said Japan needed to change its mindset to have “multi-function, flexible defense capabilities” to deal with new threats such as terrorist and missile attacks.
A statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Japan decided to export missile parts to the United States under “strict controls” to contribute to “the Japan-US security alliance and secure the safety of our country.”
Hosoda said any other military exports would be approved on a case-by-case basis. Koizumi on Friday held out the possibility that Japan, which is heavily dependent on oil shipments, could sell arms to Southeast Asian nations to fight piracy.
Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the country’s largest commercial lobby, the Japan Business Federation or Keidanren, hailed the new defense policy, saying Japan was “in the midst of a major turning point.”
The constitution imposed by US occupiers after World War II said Japan would forever renounce war. Japan has since produced top-of-the-line equipment which its military - known as the Self-Defense Forces - is forbidden to use. Embracing its pacifist role, Japan in 1967 said it would ban all weapons sales to communist and other countries perceived to threaten world peace. The self-imposed ban was tightened in 1976 to rule out all military exports.
Tokyo and Washington began to study a missile interception shield after Stalinist North Korea shocked the world in 1998 by firing a missile over Japan. But Japan’s own policy stopped it from exporting missile components to its closest ally. The new defense outline comes as Japan sees increasing tension with both North Korea and China.
Japan says Chinese ships have crossed into Japanese waters, often near disputed gasfields, at least 34 times this year, including a nuclear submarine that set off a diplomatic incident last month and a survey ship spotted just as the cabinet was meeting Friday.
Hosoda played down the symbolism of the guidelines, noting they did not explicitly label China a threat. But he said that due to growing Chinese military and economy strength, Japan “needs to watch China.”
The guidelines said: “China, which has a great impact on security in this region, is pushing ahead with enhancing its nuclear and missile capabilities in modernizing its navy and air force while expanding marine activities.”
Tomohide Murai, professor of Japan’s state-run National Defense Academy and specialist on East Asia security issues, said Beijing “will surely upgrade and modernize its military” as its economy grows. “Although China has never said it would attack Japan, we cannot really rule out its offensive intention given the fact that the Chinese nuclear submarine just entered our waters,” he said.
Tighter entry checks: A government task force proposed on Friday that Japan fingerprint and photograph foreigners entering the country as part of steps to prevent terrorism. It also called for airline pilots and sea captains to be required to submit crew and passenger lists to authorities and for foreign hotel guests to be obliged to give their nationality and passport number when registering.
The government aims to submit legislation to parliament in 2006, Kyodo news agency said. Critics say the tighter measures might infringe on foreigners’ human rights. The government’s top spokesman said on Friday that such concerns would be taken into account but that preventing terrorist attacks took precedence. “These measures are purely to prevent terrorist acts. We will give consideration to human rights, but want to implement them,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference. agencies
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