CHALLENGES 2004-2005: U.S. Subservient Japan Ponders Security Role

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 22 2004 (IPS) - Japan is securely poised to enter 2005 as a decisive power in global politics but analysts say the new path poses a lingering dilemma for the Japanese public.

”Like it or not, Japan is working closely on the heels of the U.S. anti-terrorism global strategy that will also boost its own military after sixty years of postwar pacifism,” said Robert Scalapino, a veteran American Asia expert visiting Tokyo last week.

Last week, Japan also unveiled the final steps to a new National Defense Programme that cites China and North Korea as threats to its national security and calls for a ”multifunctional and flexible capability” by its troops to address new issues like terrorism threats and missile attacks.

In addition to increasing the number of its Self Defense Forces (SDF) to 148,000 from 145,000, the government has announced plans to jointly develop a highly potent two-tier missile programme with the United States, a move that will make Japan the most sophisticated military technology power in Asia.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi also extended the deployment, by another year, of 600 SDFs in U.S.-occupied Iraq – in the run-up to the Middle Eastern country’s election in January.

”From a deterrent to a responsive force – that is the future of our defense posture, Japan’s Defence Agency chief Yoshinori Ono told reporters.

Ono is spearheading a five-year defense buildup plan for fiscal 2005 to 2009 that will ease Japan’s arms exports and make peacekeeping activities its main mission.

Necessary legal changes for this purpose are expected to be submitted and passed in the Diet by the end of January.

On the new defense menu are also discussions to change the current constitution to permit military activity abroad, a step that will also pave the way for Japan to gain a permanent seat in the U.N.’s powerful Security Council.

Critics have raised concerns about the slow erosion of the pacifist society Japan has built since it adopted its current war-renouncing constitution after World War II. Some of Japan’s neighbours, who suffered under Tokyo’s expansionist policies in the first half of the last century, have expressed unease.

But Koizumi’s cabinet sought to allay such fears, saying Japan’s military would not go on the offensive.

”Our country, under our constitution, will adhere exclusively to self-defence,” said a cabinet report. ”Following our policy of not becoming a major military power that would pose a threat to other countries, we will secure civilian control.”

At the same time Japan’s traditional diplomatic tool, its Overseas Development Assistance or ODA, is sliding further. It has taken a dive by about four percent to 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 according to an announcement by the Finance Ministry. This is Japan’s lowest level of overseas aid in 16 years.

The prospect of a new Japan is no longer restricted to its traditional cheque-book diplomacy. Tokyo wants to portray a new image – one that indicates that it is side-by-side with the world’s only superpower, the United States. And this is a drastic new development not only in Asia but also on the domestic front.

”The new defense policy leaves people with a vague feeling of anxiety,” said an editorial of the ‘Japan Times’ on Dec. 12, pointing to the possibility of a major military build-up to meet every security threat to Japan.

Critics are also scathing when they point out that every security decision taken by Japan recently represents a de facto undermining of its peace constitution, as well as a military build-up and integration with the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush.

By and large, Japanese public opinion is divided, on the country’s new defence policy and the presence of its SDFs in Iraq.

Junji Banno, a historian is worried that the Koizumi government has played up the threats to Japanese security in order to obscure the harsher consequences of the new defense programme such as the possibility of the death of a Japanese SDF in Iraq or a bomb blast in Tokyo.

”The public has not been consulted closely when drafting the new defense policy,” he explained, while calling for a referendum on the crucial issue.

But Mitsue Ogi, 26, a graduate student is of a different opinion.

She said she watched the second dispatch of Japan’s SDFs to Iraq this month with ”mixed feelings”.

Ogi told IPS she was torn between helping to curtail global terrorism and the high value she places on Japan being a ”peaceful country that respects other cultures.”

”I am happy that by sending troops to help the U.S. bring elections in Iraq, Japan has avoided being blamed again for only forking out money for solving international disputes,” she said.

But proponents argue that change is long overdue since the threat perception to Japan has changed.

”There is no need to suspect the sincerity of Japan’s military build-up. In the post Cold War era the threats to Japan’s security are from its own neighbours and it cannot wait for the protection of the United States,” Hisako Okazaki, a former diplomat, pointed out.

Jan Oberg, director of the Sweden-based Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research argues Japan could do much more for true peace if it was not so submissive to the United States.

”If the country begins to think and act as a sovereign state; moves closer to its regional allies and sees the EU as its first partner in the West, things will be much better,” he said.

Added Oberg: ”Let’s imagine that Japan speaks up against weapons of mass destruction everywhere – no country can do it with more conviction. And let’s hope it becomes the champion of real human security and conflict resolution with peaceful means.”

Oberg stressed that Japan could do it and all it takes is a mature relationship with the U.S.

”And then it (Japan) could become one of the most fascinating and useful members to the world community and a natural leader in the U.N. Security Council and elsewhere.”