Japan's Defense Guidelines

The Diet bill, which was first introduced in 1997 but had taken a backseat to various economic reform bills, is essentially an extension of the 1978 treaty. It contains, however, two major exceptions. First, two parties in Parliament, Naoto Kan's Democratic Party and the occasional majority coalition partner Komei party, want to ensure that Parliament has to give its permission before the government (i.e., the bureaucracy) can dispatch troops. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wants to allow the ministries to make that decision internally, fearing that the foot-dragging exemplified by this bill's overdue consideration will cause a dispatch requiring speed to die slowly.

The second and more difficult problem is the unspecified area "covered" by the treaty. What if North Korea invades South? The American government, committed by a defense treaty with Seoul, would certainly intervene. Under the new guidelines, could the Japanese intervene? Would they be required to? What if the People's Republic of China invaded Taiwan, and the Americans came to the rescue? What about a conflict in the South China Sea? Defining the covered area broadly makes China nervous, and China has already insisted that the guidelines not include Taiwan. Defining the area narrowly, just to the Korean peninsula, makes an already jumpy North Korea more anxious. Not defining the area annoys everyone.

What about, as one political party suggested, limiting the area to include simply Japan? That measure would limit the SDF to a truly defensive role, but it raises yet another, normative, question: ought the Japanese build a military at all?

The answer is resoundingly yes. As Defense Agency Director General Hosei Norota recently said, "In addition to the continuing military confrontation between South and North Korea, the launch of a ballistic missile by Pyongyang last year has cast a serious question over our national security as well as over the peace and stability of Northeast Asia." North Korea, running alternately hot and cold, sane and insane, unfriendly and unfriendlier, is the biggest reason Japan ought to be able to defend itself, and its economic allies in the region.

North Korea is not the only source of fear in the Pacific Rim. There are other trouble spots of varying intensity, including the Kurile islands (contested between Japan and Russia), the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands (claimed by Japan, Taiwan, and China), the Spratley islands (claimed variously by China, the Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, and Malaysia), the China-Taiwan problem, and other, more remote

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4