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Japan to become 'Britain of the Far
East'
By Kosuke Takahashi
The accord between the United States and
Japan calling for strengthened bilateral military
and security ties - ties already reinforced by
China's military buildup, North Korea's nuclear
crisis, and the global threat of terrorism - marks
the evolution of the US-Japan relationship and
signals a critical historic phase in the early
21st century. With possible flashpoints ranging
from the Middle East to Northeast Asia, the US
global military transformation - under fire from
many quarters - is transforming Japan itself into
a reliable and unswerving "Britain of the Far
East".
Britain is the United States'
closest ally in the Western Hemisphere, and the US
wants Japan to become the Asian equivalent of the
United Kingdom in the Eastern Hemisphere. The US
is currently redeploying and transforming its
military to expand its military operations in the
so-called "arc of instability" stretching from
Northeast Asia to the Middle East by securing and
strengthening the forward deployment of US forces
abroad. This new realignment will project US
forces further, faster and with greater striking
power when they reach their destination. Many
analysts have pointed out Japan is becoming a
linchpin, a key security outpost, in the United
States' defense posture in the Asia-Pacific
region.
Right-leaning Japanese politicians
and military planners in the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP), led by Prime Minister
Junichiro Koizumi, appear to be willing, without
much hesitation, to accept this new role of
providing military hardware to the US, or
participating in future conflicts under the wings
of the American eagle. They want Japan to assume a
more assertive (they would say rightful, while
critics would say aggressive) role on the world
stage and change its low profile in international
politics by shedding its strong pacifism enshrined
in the post-World War II US-imposed constitution
in the future. They view the current constitution
with its limits on combat overseas as
anachronistic, unrealistic and irresponsible in
the current turbulent world.
For ordinary
Japanese, the issue of the consolidation and
reduction of US military bases in Japan,
especially in Okinawa, is more important than
anything else. The two nations agreed to
accelerate consultations based on the objectives
of realigning US military forces in Japan,
committing themselves to reduce the burden on
local communities hosting US forces while
maintaining effective deterrence. Still, the
relocation of US military units such as those in
Okinawa to other local cities and towns could
trigger strong opposition from concerned local
governments and communities in the coming months.
Japan and the United States agreed last
weekend in Washington to strengthen security and
defense cooperation by setting "common strategic
objectives" to deal with new threats such as
terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. The occasion was last Saturday's "two
plus two" meeting of foreign affairs and defense
chiefs from both nations. The agreement spelled
out for the first time a common strategic
objective to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait -
to China's anger and great embarrassment (See Japan-US Joint Statement; US-Japan Joint Statement on North
Korea; and the 1996 Japan-US Joint
Declaration on their security alliance.)
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said
US-Japan ties have never been better. "I cannot
think of a time when the relationship has been
closer or more constructive, and we value that in
the United States and benefit from it," Rumsfeld
said at the conclusion of the meeting. "[We]
certainly understand that it [the defense
relationship] remains a key pillar for peace and
stability in the Asia-Pacific region, and a
benefit to the world."
Japanese Defense
Agency director general Yoshinori Ono agreed in
separate talks with Rumsfeld on a US proposal for
advancing joint research on a theater missile
defense (TMD) system to the development stage in
fiscal 2006, potentially targeting North Korea's
Nodong and Daepodong missiles as well as China's
Dong Feng missiles. Many analysts have pointed out
that this missile defense system will become the
actual bulwark of the Japan-US security alliance
in the future.
The two sides also agreed
to continue diplomatic efforts on the issue of
North Korea's recent brandishing of nuclear
weapons. Their joint statement said, "The
ministers strongly urged North Korea to return to
the six-party talks expeditiously and without
preconditions, and to commit itself to complete
dismantlement of all its nuclear programs in a
transparent manner subject to verification."
Japanese media have reported that Japan and the US
affirmed their cooperation in preparing for any
emergency cases, including a possible missile
launch by the Hermit Kingdom, by sharing relevant
information.
The four ministers also
negotiated a new joint security declaration
expected to be signed by Koizumi and US President
George W Bush this autumn in Tokyo.
China
was upset by the statement, which also advocated
resolving the Taiwan Strait conflict through
peaceful dialogue and asked Beijing to be more
"transparent" in military terms. China quickly
criticized the US and Japan for meddling in its
internal security affairs relating to Taiwan,
which it considers part of China. Calling the
US-Japan security alliance "a bilateral scheme
spawned during the Cold War period", Foreign
Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said, "The Chinese
government and Chinese people firmly oppose the
US-Japan statement on the Taiwan issue, which
concerns China's sovereignty, territorial
integrity and national security," People's Daily
reported.
Meanwhile, Taiwan cautiously
welcomed the statement from the US and Japan that
identified maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait
as a common security objective. "I welcome the
international community's concern and interest in
peace in the Taiwan Strait," Premier Frank Hsieh
said in a statement. "Peace in the Taiwan Strait
will help security and safety on the two sides.
Taiwan should take up its responsibilities as a
member of the global community," he was quoted as
saying.
'Britain of the Far
East'
Washington officials appear to have
increasingly longed for closer defense relations
with Japan that mirror the US-British special
relationship in the past years, especially when
Tokyo sent more than 1,000 Self-Defense Forces
(SDF) personnel, mostly ground forces, to Iraq.
The move was greatly appreciated by US officials
at a time when the United States remained at odds
over the Iraq with the European Union's main
member nations, France and Germany. The term
"special relationship" is commonly used to refer
to the political and strategic ties between the US
and the UK.
From their perspective,
Britain is the United States' closest ally in
Europe and Japan is its closest ally in Asia. But
unlike Britain, Japan still cannot fully be
involved in US military operations. Article 9 of
the Japanese constitution prohibits the use of
force as a means of settling international
disputes, and the SDF is authorized to fight only
if Japan itself is invaded, and then only on
Japanese territory or in the surrounding sea and
air. For this reason, Japanese troops were
deployed to Samawah, a southern Iraqi city, which
the Japanese government claims as non-combat zone,
strictly on a "humanitarian" mission. The 2003
Special Measures Law stipulates that the SDF can
only be sent to areas where hostilities are not
under way. To send troops into a combat zone would
violate this law.
Article 9 of the
constitution, the "war-renouncing" provision,
states:
1) Aspiring sincerely to an
international peace based on justice and order,
the Japanese people forever renounce war as a
sovereign right of the nation and the threat or
use of force as means of settling international
disputes.
2) In order to accomplish the aim
of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air
forces, as well as other war potential, will
never be maintained. The right of aggression of
the state will not be recognized. US
officials appear to welcome a change in this state
of military affairs in Japan and then seek a
heightened level of the US-Japan alliance in the
future - to parallel the US-British alliance.
Washington has urged Tokyo to amend Article 9 and
to authorize the right to collective self-defense.
(Japan's current official stance is that it has
this right, but cannot invoke it under the current
constitution.) US military planners clearly want
Tokyo to expand the SDF's activities to support
US-led operations in Asia and elsewhere in the
future. They may want to capitalize on the close
personal ties between Bush and Koizumi to achieve
their political and military ends.
Instructed by Koizumi, his LDP is
currently mapping out a blueprint for amending the
constitution by next November, when the party will
mark the 50th anniversary of its founding. The LDP
plans to release its constitutional amendment
draft at that time.
This idea of
transforming Japan into "Britain of the Far East"
is nothing new. Richard Armitage, the former US
deputy secretary of state, who has extensive
knowledge of Japan, once expressed this idea in a
special report for the Institute for National
Strategic Studies, National Defense University (in
Washington, DC): This report has since been
commonly known as the Armitage
Report, referring to Japan as the
"Britain of the Far East". Many senior officials
have adopted that concept and used the expression.
Michael Green, the current National Security
Council senior director for Asian affairs, was a
member of the Armitage group. On October 11, 2000,
the study group led by Armitage, then president of
Armitage Associates, said, "We see the special
relationship between the United States and Great
Britain as a model for the [US-Japan] alliance."
Japanese hawks and some hardline Japanese
military planners and politicians do not find this
idea offensive, or even distasteful. This could
lead to realizing their long-cherished wish to
amend the constitution. Although this is little
known among foreign observers, the LDP's founding
charter at the birth of the party in 1955 includes
the "establishment of Japan's own constitution" as
the party's basic policy. Koizumi himself once
said, "The founding spirit of the LDP was to
establish Japan's own constitution ... After 50
years, it's about time for the LDP to consider how
to amend the constitution and come up with an idea
to raise national debate on the issue."
By
amending the constitution, they believe Japan will
return to being a "normal" country again with the
exercise of the right of collective self-defense
and the full engagement in collective security
arrangements such as those in the United Nations.
They believe this also will mean the eventual
removal of US troops from Japanese territory in
the long term - a goal the LDP set forth in its
founding policy statement of 1955, although at
this time most conservative politicians recognize
the strategic importance of having some local US
military presence.
On Saturday, the two
countries also agreed to look into handing over to
Japan US-held base management and
air-traffic-control rights in order to expand the
joint use of the facilities, including Yokota Air
Base in Tokyo. If this new arrangement is
realized, the SDF would manage the bases and use
them in conjunction with the US military. This
looks like a US gesture of goodwill toward the
Japanese public by making some concessions to
Tokyo. Most Japanese politicians seem to believe
that this joint use, instead of exclusive US use,
would lead to a scaling back of the US military
presence in the future. But some critics have
pointed out that this could be just a pragmatic
strategy of the US, without a real difference. By
reducing the current footprints of US bases,
Washington appears to seek those bases being made
permanent but less offensive, despite strong
anti-base movements such those as in Okinawa.
The joint statement is just the beginning
of Japan's new military posture and could mean
that Japan will become much more closely aligned
with and even involved in America's global
strategies in the "war against terrorism". It
holds major implications for Japan's future,
including the amendment of Article 9 of its
pacifist constitution in the coming years. The US
drafted the current pacifist constitution, but now
wants to scrap those pacifism provisions and urge
combat by Japan if necessary.
Kosuke
Takahashi is a former staff writer at the
Asahi Shimbun and is currently a freelance
correspondent based in Tokyo. He can be contacted
at letters@kosuke.net.
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