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Shigeru Ishiba: Japan's
hawk-in-chief
By Axel Berkofsky
Spying on North Korea, boosting Japan's military
capabilities and attacking Pyongyang preemptively -
these should be on Japan's defense policy agenda as far
as Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba and other
Japanese defense hawks are concerned.
Ishiba,
known for chronic difficulties at holding his tongue
when elaborating on Japan's defense policy, started his
series of verbal blunders when heading a delegation to
South Korea at the end of March.
Although
Japanese-South Korean efforts to deal with the security
situation on the Korean Peninsula were on his agenda,
the Defense Agency chief chose to inform his hosts that
attacking North Korea preemptively is not
"unconstitutional" if Pyongyang were suspected of
planning to launch a missile at Japan.
As usual,
cautious rhetoric and a cool head are not for Ishiba
with evil-doer North Korea on the agenda - regardless
that the timing for another gaffe could hardly have been
worse.
Japan's defense hawk-in-chief considered
attacking North Korea on Fuji television only shortly
after he agreed with his South Korean counterpart Cho
Young-Kil to resolve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula
peacefully.
The "good news" is that Ishiba still
plans to let the United States do the dirty work,
reportedly limiting Japan's role to logistical support
for US military stationed on Japanese soil for now. "We
will keep intact the policy of leaving necessary
preemptive strikes to the US and there is no change in
that policy," he said, confirming that Japan will still
be watching from a distance should North Korea be next
on the US list of countries to be "liberated".
At least for the time being, it seems.
"At some point, we have to inspect, however, how
correct that policy is," he added, indicating that Japan
might one day be obliged to move beyond the stage of
helpful bystander if North Korea pulls the trigger.
This was not the first time, of course, that
Ishiba had suggested launching an attack on North Korea
to solve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. As recently
as the end of February, he had the same idea, urging his
country's armed forces to be prepared to attack North
Korea before Pyongyang's missiles were on their way to
downtown Tokyo. But he blamed the foreign media for his
verbal blunder, claiming that the translators got it all
wrong.
Back in Tokyo from his visit in Seoul,
Ishiba switched back to diplomatic mode and announced
that Tokyo and Seoul are in "nearly perfect agreement"
on how to deal with North Korea and its occasional
threats to send rogue missiles over East Asia.
Colleagues traveling with him, however, were
less enthusiastic about the level of agreement. "While
we stressed the necessity to protect Japan from North
Korean missiles with a missile defense system, the South
Koreans seemed hardly interested in mentioning the issue
at all," complained a member of the Japanese
delegation.
Government officials in Tokyo joined
in, claiming that South Korea's rhetoric to strengthen
efforts to solve the crisis on the Korean dialogue was
no more than an attempt to patch up things temporarily.
Ishiba and like-minded members of the defense
establishment seem more interested in preparing Japan
for an attack anyway and last Friday urged the
government to upgrade Japan's current missile defense
capabilities.
Since 1999, Japan and the US have
conducted joint research to develop the Navy Theater
Wide Defense system which, if feasible, will be deployed
on high-tech Aegis warship to intercept ballistic
missiles. The research, however, could take up to
another two years and Japan has yet to make up its mind
whether it wants to move on to the development phase.
Time is quickly running out for Japan, warn
Defense Agency officials who for their part seem eager
to shoot down missiles long before Japan's politicians
get around to making up their minds.
After the
US "successfully tested" the Patriot Advanced
Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system in the war against
Iraq, the Japanese military is now urging the government
to order the PAC-3 system if Japan wants to shoot down
missiles without US help.
The Air Self-Defense
Force is already equipped with the missile system's
earlier version (PAC-2), which the US used during the
first Gulf War to shoot down Saddam Hussein's Scud
missiles targeted at Israel. Unlike the PAC-3 system,
the older PAC-2 version, however, is not able to shoot
down North Korean Nodong missiles.
According to
Defense Agency sources, North Korea has already deployed
up to 100 of its medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles,
which have a range of 1,300 kilometers - capable of
hitting any target in Japan.
Japan, therefore,
needs the upgrade badly, confirms Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi, who put the advanced US Patriot
surface-to-air missile system, the missiles and software
that comes with it on top of the Defense Agency's
shopping list for 2004. Spy technology that is "made in
Japan", meanwhile, was fired into orbit for the first
time on March 28, enabling Tokyo to keep an eye on its
neighbor with nuclear ambitions. Although the Defense
Agency promises that the second and third generation of
Japanese spy satellites will catch up with the US
high-tech eyes eventually, the Japanese taxpayer for now
ended up paying US$3.77 billion for a pair of satellites
that see less than US satellites could during the Cold
War.
While Koizumi thinks that the spy
satellites and missile defense system will "improve"
Japan's negotiating position with North Korea, Pyongyang
for its part calls Japan's efforts to beef up its
military capabilities a "hostile act".
Japan,
however, might get much more "hostile" if it is up to
Ishiba.
He grabbed another headline asking the
government to equip the country's military with
offensive capabilities enabling Japan to conduct a
preemptive strike "if necessary". He reportedly
requested US state-of-the-art equipment and, according
to the Japanese daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun,
thought that buying a couple Tomahawks from the US soon
is "worth considering".
While political
commentators in Japan are indeed beginning to fear that
the Defense Agency chief's rhetoric is taking a
prolonged break from common sense, the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party's secretary general Taku Yamazaki finds
it only "politically difficult" to equip the country's
armed forces with military offensive capabilities.
The Japanese government has no plans to expand
the country's armed forces' mission from defending Japan
to attacking its neighbors and sent Chief Cabinet
Secretary Yasuo Fukuda to set the record straight.
"The government is not at all considering to buy
Tomahawks," said Fukuda, who disappointed the defense
hawks by claiming that deploying offensive capabilities
is a non-starter given Japan's "self-defense-only
policy".
It seems Koizumi and his aides remain
busy keeping the country's defense establishment in
check. More work, however, is yet to be done as long as
the hawks send their minds on vacation while ordering
their mouths to be working overtime.
(©2003 Asia
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