Coincidentally, these developments were reported in the same week as the anniversary of the Nanking Massacre of 1937-38, which remembrance was totally unreported by the Western media but remembered in China where “over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people” and wreaked further death and destruction there and throughout Asia until 1945. They killed or otherwise caused the deaths of countless millions.

There was another anniversary in early December — that of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when 2,400 Americans were killed. President Roosevelt had declared that “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

The date has not lived in infamy, or indeed in any other way so far as the New York Times or the Washington Post are concerned, because neither’s front pages mentioned Pearl Harbor on either December 7 or 8. A few days later, however, the Post reported that “Japan will announce plans to buy 40 to 50 [Lockheed Martin] F-35s over the next five years but may ultimately purchase 100 planes [which cost about $100 million each]. That will have the added benefit of mollifying President Trump, who has complained about the US trade deficit with Japan as well as the cost of stationing tens of thousands of U.S. troops here.” And the NYT headlined that “Japan to Ramp Up Defense Spending to Pay for New Fighters, Radar.”

The message is that Japan is embarking on a military spending surge which is totally inconsistent with the provisions of its Constitution, but entirely in line with the anti-China alliance that is being forged by Washington with various nations.

At the end of the Second World War, Japan was devastated and reeling from US operations in the Pacific that culminated in two atomic bomb attacks. It had to be rebuilt, and the generous United States helped its former deadly enemy to rise from the ashes. As officially recorded, “Between 1945 and 1952, the US occupying forces, led by General Douglas MacArthur, enacted widespread military, political, economic, and social reforms . . . In 1947, Allied advisors essentially dictated a new constitution to Japan’s leaders. Some of the most profound changes in the document included… renouncing the right to wage war, which involved eliminating all non-defensive armed forces.”

There have not as yet been any amendments to Japan’s Constitution about waging war, and most Japanese people consider conflict undesirable. The Constitution is precise in stating that “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. 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 belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”

It could not be clearer: given its own fundamental principles, Japan cannot maintain armed forces. Yet a recent report indicates that “According to Japan’s 2018 Defense White Paper, the total strength of the Self-Defense Forces stands at 226,789 personnel,” including 138,126 in the army, 42,289 in the navy and 46,942 in the air force — or, to use the descriptions employed to fudge the fact that these are military forces with offensive capabilities, they are the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (SDF), the Japan Maritime SDF (18 submarines, 37 destroyers; two more on the way), and the Japan Air SDF (260 advanced combat aircraft).

That is a potent military force, and under the government of Shinzo Abe it will continue to be enlarged and developed with the warm approval of the United States with which Japan has a Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security.

When Abe was re-elected head of his party in September he declared that “It's time to tackle a constitutional revision,” and everyone knows what “revision” he wants to make. As reported by Asahi Shimbun “He is proposing to add a clause to Article 9, which bans the use of force in settling international disputes, to explicitly permit the existence of Japan's military, now called the Self-Defense Force.” And if he succeeds in having that amendment approved, it will be downhill all the way from there.

Japan has territorial disputes with China and Russia, the former about sovereignty over some islands in the South China Sea, and that with Russia concerning the Kuril Island chain, which is inhabited by Russians, having been handed over to the Soviet Union a short time before the end of World War Two. The US Navy and Air Force, in Washington’s self-assumed role as Führer of the world’s oceans, continue to challenge China in the South China Sea in its confrontational “Freedom of Navigation” operations, and as recently as December 6 was involved in a similar naval fandango when, as the CNN headline had it: “US warship challenges Russia claims in Sea of Japan.”

CNN stated that the US had sent the guided missile destroyer USS McCampbell “to Peter the Great Bay to challenge Russia’s excessive maritime claims and uphold the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea enjoyed by the United States and other Nations.”

It is hardly coincidental that “Peter the Great Bay is the largest gulf in the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea, and home both to the Russian city of Vladivostok and the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet.” Little wonder that the US wants to challenge Russia in that region — and of course it is entirely fortuitous that this maritime provocation comes after Ukraine’s naval incursions in the Kerch Strait, which were intended to encourage domestic and international support for Ukraine’s President Poroshenko. (Russia called a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the affair, but that descended into an insult offensive by the US.)

It is apparent that Washington intends to continue challenging China and Russia in waters some 8,000 to 11,000 kilometres from the US West Coast, centred on a country in which the US has a vast military presence, with the Seventh Fleet being based in Yokosuka, the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa and some 150 combat aircraft of the USAF at three major air bases.

Along their borders in the Asia-Pacific region both China and Russia face increasingly confrontational US military manoeuvres which are intended to provoke them to take action. For the moment, Japan’s “self-defence” forces are constitutionally forbidden to get involved in anything that would involve the “threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes”. But the moment after Shinzo Abe succeeds in having Japan’s constitution amended, just watch developments, because Washington will welcome Japan’s return to militarism and will encourage it to join in its military provocations.

It’ll be just like the old days in Nanking and Pearl Harbor.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe invited Indian Premier Narendra Modi so his holiday home on Sunday in what is reportedly a diplomatic first as the two leaders kicked off their two-day summit in chummy fashion.

Modi arrived in Japan late Saturday – the same day Abe returned from a three-day summit in China – to be met by members of the Indian expatriate community.  On Sunday, he was invited to Abe’s vacation home at a scenic resort in the shadow of Mount Fuji. According to Kyodo news agency, Modi is the first visitor to be graced with such an invitation, with Abe clearly keen to show off one Asia ’s leading buddy acts.

It is a return visit, of sorts. Last September, Abe visited Ahmedabad in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, where he attended a ribbon-cutting to kickstart construction on a new high-speed rail line to Mumbai employing Japan’s vaunted bullet-train technologies.

Also on Sunday, in addition to holding talks in what is now their 11^th bilateral, the two leaders visited a robot factory. Their main agenda items, however, will be discussed Monday, where the day will be spent in talks, followed by a state banquet, and  Modi’s return home.

The agenda is likely to be packed as the leaders of India and Japan have much to discuss.

Although a proposed “quad” regional defense initiative between democracies Australia, India, Japan and the United State seems stuck in stasis, Japan and India sit on the eastern and western flanks of an expansive China, and are upping defense cooperation.

On the economic front, Modi seeks Japanese technology and investment to fulfill the promise of his “Make in India” brand, while Abe seeks to expand Japan’s role both as a business partner and as a player in regional infrastructure development at a time when China is aggressively promoting its Belt and Road Initiative.

In an interview with Japanese media on Friday, Modi said his discussions with Abe “will be an opportunity to review our ongoing cooperation and discuss ways for expanding our relationship for promoting peace, progress and prosperity throughout the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.”

A strategic and economic partnership

At a time when freedom of navigation is becoming a hot-button regional issue, Abe and Modi are expected to confirm their cooperation to realize a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.

Abe has been promoting the “Indo-Pacific” concept since well before Trump, and is reaching out to friends around the region at a time when Washington is calling into question defense alliances and demanding allies pay more. These issues are reflected in growing defense ties between New Delhi and Tokyo.

A key agenda item on  Monday, according to Japan’s ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, will be an “Acquisition and Cross Servicing Agreement”  between the two countries – essentially, a logistics agreement that will help underwrite the increasing number of exchanges between their armed forces. A Japanese naval battlegroup, including the powerful helicopter destroyer Kaga, just spent two months in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean, where it held drills with the Indian and Sri Lankan navies,

Under the proposed pact, Japanese ships would be able to refuel and service at Indian naval bases in locations including the Andaman and Nicobar islands. These island bases lie northwest of the strategic Malacca Strait – a critical transit link between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.

India’s navy – which, like Japan’s, is increasingly wide-ranging at a time when China is massively upgrading its blue water assets – would benefit from Japanese maintenance facilities in return.

And bilateral defense cooperation is starting to extend beyond the maritime space. Monday’s summit comes almost on the eve of two weeks of Indo-Japan army exercises – the first army-to-army engagement to be held since the two militaries faced off against each other in World War II – which begin on November 1 in northeast India

And although India is hardly a central player on the issue, Japan’s Foreign Ministry released a statement that has become almost de rigeur whenever Abe meets global leaders, stating that the two agreed to cooperate on North Korean denuclearization. Although Japan has an intense interest in the issue, it is currently on the outside looking in as Pyongyang pointedly ignores Tokyo and talks with Beijing, Seoul and Washington.

On the economic front, while Islamabad has been a partner in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, notably via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), New Delhi – which fought a border war with Bejing in 1962 and still is still embroiled in related border disputes – has been wary about accepting Chinese capital. That is a vacuum Abe appears willing to fill.

According to Japanese news sources, a key announcement on Monday is expected to be the provision of low-interest Japanese loans worth more than $2.68 billion. Among that will be monies dedicated to India’s 500-kilometer Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project, which is facing growing opposition in India over the high cost and protests from farmers who refuse to give up their land.

atimes.com

Photo: @JPN_PMO

On October 22, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe scored a major victory in national elections. His Liberal Democratic Party and the Komeito Party, the small coalition partner, together secured at least 312 seats in the 465-seat lower house of parliament, passing the 310-barrier for a two-thirds majority. The elections’ outcome means continuation of the policies pursued since his coming to power in 2012 – a hard line on North Korea and close ties with Washington, especially on defense cooperation. The victory also increases the prime minister’s chances of winning another three-year term next September as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. That could extend his premiership to 2021. Now Abe is on his way to becoming Japan’s longest-serving prime minister since World War II.

The electoral success also gives the PM more time for implementation of his plans to revise Japan's peaceful constitution, which is the prerequisite to increasing Japan’s military capabilities and options. “This was the first election in which we made constitutional change a main pillar of our policy platform,” he said on October 23.

The constitution renounces the use of force in international conflicts, banning the acts of belligerence. While Article 9 technically bans the maintenance of standing armed forces, it has been interpreted by successive Japanese governments to allow the Self-Defence Forces, as the military is known, for exclusively defensive purposes. Historic changes enacted in 2015 expanded that to allow for limited collective self-defense, or aiding an ally under attack.

Any change to Japan's constitution, which has never been amended, requires approval first by two-thirds of both houses of parliament, and then in a public referendum. The Abe’s party and its coalition partner together hold such a majority. With “supermajority” in both houses, the PM has a free hand to push legislation. Changing the constitution will still be an uphill battle as the public is largely opposed to amendment. Currently, Japan’s military spending amounts to about 1% of GDP. It is at the highest level that it has been since 1945. Some legislators are pushing to increase that by another 20%, especially in light of concerns about US commitment to the region.

One of US President Trump’s national-security goals is to push American allies to contribute more toward their own defense. Trump is to visit Japan in early November. About 50,000 US troops are based on Japanese soil, including the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, a sizable Marine contingent and the largest combat wing of the US Air Force. And each year Japan pays $2 billion for hosting them. Tokyo is likely to introduce additional missile defense capabilities such as Aegis Ashore or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems in the near future, given that the LDP has supported additional defense spending for these purposes.

The ruling coalition is debating the need for Japan to deploy its own surface-to-surface missiles to enhance deterrence vis-à-vis North Korea, including the ability to neutralize North Korean ballistic missiles on their launch pads. Japan has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring bombers or weapons such as cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries, relying instead on its US ally to take the fight to its enemies. But the growing threat posed by North Korea is adding weight to an argument that Japan needs first strike capability.  

It appears that Tokyo may be looking to procure Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States. The missiles would be used as standoff retaliatory strike weapons against North Korean missile launchers and launch facilities. The Tomahawks would likely be fielded aboard Japan's Aegis and Mark 41 vertical launch system equipped destroyers. It would mean Japan could attack targets located on the vast majority of world's landmass.

Japan is also very closely examining procuring Aegis Ashore for a fixed, land-based missile defense capability. Aegis Ashore makes use of the same Mark 41 vertical launch system (VLS) that US Navy's surface combatants use to fire the BGM-109 Tomahawk. Just like the US destroyers and cruisers that use the Aegis combat system and its Mark 41 VLS system at sea, Japan could integrate Tomahawk capability into their Aegis Ashore facilities. It proves that Russia’s concern over the Mk-41 capability to launch intermediate range cruise missiles in Europe violating the INF Treaty is justified. If the VLS can do it in Japan, it can do it in Romania or Poland.

After a missile strike, Japan’s forty-two F-35A Joint Strike Fighters could then conduct follow-up strikes to continue to degrade North Korea’s radar network and missile air defenses. Japan could also buy precision air-launched missiles such as Lockheed Martin Corp’s extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) or the shorter-range Joint Strike missile

Japan is currently planning to purchase three RQ-4 high-altitude long-endurance drones from the United States. This would allow the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force to conduct multiple search, tracking and bomb-damage assessment operations at once across the length and depth of North Korea or in other areas.

The election victory does not mean that boosting the military potential has wide public support. This was the moment when the opposition was weak with the largest opposition force – the Democratic Party – in disarray. The turnout rate of 53.68 percent – the second lowest in postwar Japan. North Korea serves as a pretext for military plans, which would otherwise have little chance to go through.

The tough stance on North Korea is not the only element of the PM’s foreign policy. The voters evidently backed his policy of engagement with China. The policy on Russia is widely supported. Since his coming to power, the PM has been implementing the policy of rapprochement with Russia. During his official visit to Moscow in April, 2013, Russia and Japan inked a joint statement to launch multilateral cooperation, including “2+2” format regular meetings of foreign and defense ministers for consultations.

Russia and Japan hold regular summits. At the Sochi summit in May, 2016, Abe announced his “New approach” to ties with Russia. During the September, 2017, meeting at the Eastern Economic Forum, the leaders discussed the issue of the Kuril Islands. Russian President Putin will meet Shinzo Abe at the November 2017, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam. Further improvement of Russia-Japan relations is a staple of Shinzo Abe’s foreign policy that receives voters’ support to strengthen the PM’s position before the election he so spectacularly won.

Gregory CLARK

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to call an early Lower House election, due this Sunday, was a puzzle. Together with its coalition partner, Komeito, his Liberal Democratic Party held an unassailable majority. Even though the newly formed Kibo no To (Party of Hope) under Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike seemed certain to eat into that majority, he was still safe. Maybe he felt he could somehow exploit the current opposition disarray to his advantage.

Koike has an attractive personality. But speaking as someone who has known her ever since she was assistant for a popular series of TV interview programs back in the 1980s, her only consistent policy seems to me to be a virulently nationalistic dislike of all communist nations. Elsewhere she seems to rely on the fashions of the day — currently all the way from a freeze on consumption tax increases and an end to nuclear power to curing hay fever and removing unsightly power poles.

The new law allows the self-defense forces (SDF) to defend Japan's allies, even when the country isn't under attack, and work more closely with the U.S. and other friendly countries, including international peacekeeping. Japan will now play a bigger role in taking up security responsibilities under the U.S.-Japan alliance. Under the terms of the bilateral security treaty, the U.S. is obliged to protect Japan in case it comes under attack, but the alliance has never worked in the other direction. Now it will. The legislation could also mean an increase in heated rhetoric between Japan and China with regard to their disputed territorial claims in the East China Sea.

A key feature of the law is an end to a long-standing ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or defending the United States or another friendly country that comes under attack in cases where Japan faces a "threat to its survival". For example, a Japanese ship could fire on an enemy attacking a US naval ship. Japan’s forces might also shoot down a North Korean missile under the pretext it is launched to strike the United States. Self-Defense Forces previously fueled U.S. ships headed for combat operations in Afghanistan under a temporary law. The new law allows Japan to provide a wider range of supplies, including ammunition, without any global constraints. Now Japan can take a military action to keep shipping lanes secure, such as minesweeping. Armed involvement in hostage rescues is possible. There are no regional limits on Japanese military support for US and other foreign armed forces.

True, the Japan’s SDF will only be allowed to employ the minimum necessary force, and only when no options other than force exist. But opponents decry the lack of detailed scenarios for when such force would be employed.

Diplomatic tensions in Northeast Asia are likely to rise.

Critics argue that the law could lead to Japanese troops being caught up in battles on behalf of the United States on distant shores similar to the invasions of Iraq or Afghanistan. Some analysts might say that the military distinction between self-defense and a more expansive regional military role is redundant. The law will add to fears that an arms race could be sparked with China and its neighbors. There is also concern about the potential impact of the legislation on Japan's defense budget at a time when the country is struggling with a crippling national deficit and chronic economic stagnation. The nation is still scarred by the suffering wrought by World War II that has left many Japanese with a deep-seated aversion to military action.

Public approval for Abe's cabinet has fallen to 38.9 percent from 43.2 percent in mid-August, with a majority of respondents opposing the bills, according to the latest Kyodo News survey.

At that any lawsuit aimed at overturning the legislation could take years to wind its way through various lower courts before reaching the Supreme Court.

The law fueled anger among Japan's neighbors. China was quick to respond to the outcome in a statement urging Japan to learn lesson from history. But China's defence ministry said that they "run counter to the trend of the times that upholds peace, development and co-operation", the Xinhua news agency reports. "The move has breached the restrictions of Japan's pacifist constitution," the ministry added.

The two Koreas, which suffered harsh Japanese occupations in the 20th century, also blasted the new law.

The issue will be on the bilateral agenda during the planned visit of Russian President Putin to Japan (no precise date is fixed as yet).

The push for broader powers for Japan’s armed forces was backed by the US, Australia and neighbors including Taiwan that want the country to share the burden of patrolling Asian waters and to help maintain the regional balance of power.

The impassioned debate surrounding Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's desire to give Japanese defense forces a bigger role internationally obscures the fact that the country is already a significant military player. It has well-equipped air, sea and land forces with ambitious modernization plans under way.

On the 31st of August, 2015, the Japanese defence ministry requested a military budget of 5.1 trillion yen ($42, 3 billion) for the 2016 financial year, a rise of 2.2% on the 2015 budget – the highest level in Japan's modern history. The Japan’s SDF are among the world’s largest military with annual military spending ranking sixth in the world last year – in Asia second only to China.

The planned expenditure includes the expenses to support the U.S. military presence in Japan, including support for local governments that host U.S. bases. The cost of defense acquisition keeps rising as Japan continues to seek state-of-the-art defense equipment, often used by the U.S. military (the F35A and Global Hawk are examples). Japan looks to acquire more U.S. platforms.

Japan is the third largest economy in the world standing out as technologically advanced. Despite the proclaimed defensive posture, Japan’s military has always been equipped with hi-tech hardware and is organized to be able to rapidly expand.

The Japan’s army of some 150,000 troops is a relatively small force, but the nation boasts an impressive navy including a small helicopter carrier, six Aegis-equipped ships with sophisticated radars and battle management systems (four of them are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles along with land-based PAC-3 missile interceptors) and some 34 destroyers and nine frigates of various types. It also has some 80 anti-submarine warfare or maritime patrol aircraft. More Aegis-equipped ships are planned. Brand new, Japanese-built maritime patrol aircraft are coming into service. This year, Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force commissioned – a new helicopter carrier – the JS Izumo (the largest vessel yet). This could potentially embark a number of V-22 Osprey vertical lift aircraft to give its navy a power projection capability. Japan is thought to be interested in buying up to 17 of them from the United States. Formally, the Aegis-equipped ships have a mission to protect Japan from North Korea. But they could also pose a threat to Russian strategic submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk.

Over the years, Japan has widened its sphere of international military activities. Japanese warships have participated in international anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa and Japanese maritime patrol aircraft have supported this mission from Djibouti.

Strengthening the alliance with Japan is central to the US policy of containing China. In April 2015 the US and Japan signed a revised bilateral defense-cooperation agreement. The allies plan to expand their military cooperation under new guidelines that, for the first time in the history of the alliance, will allow Tokyo to project its power on a global scale. The updated guidelines envision Japan playing a greater role in peacekeeping missions as well as in responses to natural disasters and humanitarian relief operations. The provisions also call for more cooperation and information sharing in areas like intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and cyberspace. The agreement also envisions increased cooperation in the development and production of defense technologies, which U.S. is eager to explore. The guidelines also do not envision any changes to existing agreements between the U.S. and Japan to relocate some U.S. forces from Okinawa to Guam as well as the construction of a new U.S. military facility at Futenma.

Under the revised guidelines, the two countries will work together through a new Alliance Coordination Mechanism (ACM), which will link the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense with Japan’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, as well as the U.S. military and Japan’s self-defense forces. Officials say other departments and agencies will be brought in as needed.

It is no secret that since the end of WWII, the United States has maintained its global hegemony and projected its power by forging and enhancing alliances across the world. The recent events in Japan indicate there could be an important shift in the US club of allies.

The recently adopted law eliminates the geographical limits imposed on the activities of Japanese forces and, instead, allows Japan to engage in global military cooperation in areas ranging from defense against ballistic missiles, cyber and space attacks to maritime security. Thus, one should not be surprised to see the US policing the world someday with Japan as its sidekick.

However, there are also disadvantages for the both partners to face.

Japan will be even more tightly tied to the US global military strategy. This, in turn, will reduce the space of Japan's diplomatic maneuvering, because there is no guarantee of not being drawn into conflicts involuntarily. Because of its military and political dependence on the US, Japan can never be even close to becoming a big power. The government and lawmakers should have thought twice before pushing Japan into the embrace of the US.

A stronger military alliance with Japan bodes trouble for the US as well. Washington insists the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea fall within the scope of its military pact with Tokyo. It risks a head-on confrontation with China. Japan has repeatedly refused to sincerely repent its history of aggression. The new laws are not viewed by regional powers as a blessing to regional peace and stability.

With the new law in force Japan will be under pressure to increase defense spending. In the event a Republican President takes office in the US, things are going to get tougher for Japan when it comes to the U.S.-Japan alliance.

While the world attention is diverted to the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific is becoming a volatile region with uncertain security prospects. Japan has an important role to determine the regional policies. The country is still facing economic hardships; it’s far from being fully back on track. Are the growing military expenditure and hawkish US-dictated foreign policy the things the Japanese people aspire for – that is the question.

Foreign policy goals and military build-up

The Abe administration is openly seeking to amend the Constitution, which puts breaks on military build-up, and to upgrade the SDF (Self-Defense Force) to a full-scale national defense military. According to Abe and like-minded LDP members, Article 9 stands in the way of Japan being a ‘truly sovereign’ country, as it strictly prohibits the county from maintaining armed forces (which is why Japan’s military is referred to as the ‘Self-Defence Forces’). Of course, the war-renouncing clause does not prevent Japan from spending almost $50 billion per year on its state-of-the art military. Moreover, Abe also plans to change the interpretation of Article 9 that prevents the country from exercising the right to collective self-defense as formulated in Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Allowing itself the right to collective self-defense would, e.g., authorize Japan’s armed forces to fight alongside the US military in the event of a regional conflict.

The Abe’s government, which took office in December, decided to freeze the current defense policy the following month and formulate a new one by the end of this year. In a month after he came to office, Japan pushed up annual military spending by 0.8 percent to $51.7 billion. It was raised for the first time in 11 years. The new military budget adds weapons that just a decade or two ago would have seemed overly offensive for Japan’s defensive forces, like two US-made F-35 stealth fighter-bombers, for instance.

The Prime Minister takes advantage of the fact that he took office against the background of Japan facing tensions with its neighbors in particular: with China over sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands, administered by Tokyo, in the East China Sea; with South Korea over the Takeshima islets, administered by Seoul, in the Sea of Japan; and with North Korea over its ambitions to acquire ballistic missile capability. By and large the policy to revive military might is supported across the Japanese political spectrum. In the course of last year’s elections, all the major parties called for the defence of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands as part of Japan’s territory.

Eager to boost its capabilities to defend remote islands, the SDF participated in June for the first time in Dawn Blitz 2013, an amphibious combat exercise Dawn Blitz with the U.S. military on California’s southern coast. During the two-week drills one thousand members of the Self-Defense Forces have been learning how to recapture territory in the face of enemy fire. The Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel launched a hovercraft that carried personnel and heavy weaponry onto a beach to enable elite rangers practice a nighttime beach infiltration. For the first time, they were joined by warships from the Maritime Self Defense Forces and brought along their own helicopters and landing craft

The exercises reflect the Liberal Democratic Party’s interest in developing a robust amphibious force. With the LDP sweeping the Upper House election on July 21, Abe now has a majority in both Diet chambers to push through the corresponding legislation.

On July 9, 2013, the Ministry of Defence of Japan released its Annual White Paper 2013 (AWP-2013).. It stresses that the issues and destabilizing factors in Japan’s security environment listing North Korea as the most serious challenge. There are two new areas under discussion that could significantly change the nature of the role of the Japanese military – developing the ability to launch preemptive attacks on enemy bases abroad by acquiring pre-emptive strike capability and the creation of an amphibious force similar to the US Marine Corps. The paper also suggests Japanese forces should have the capability to attack enemy bases as an effective deterrent against ballistic missile threats. That was in response to North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, as indicated by defense minister Onodera. «The reality of the current international community suggests that it is not necessarily possible to prevent invasions from the outside by only nonmilitary means such as diplomatic efforts, and in the event that the nation was to be invaded it would not be able to remove such a threat…. For this reason, Japan is striving to develop proper defense capabilities to protect the lives and assets of the public and to defend the territorial land, sea and airspace of Japan», the report says. The AWP-2013 has already been criticized by China and South Korea. Beijing responded immediately by accusing Tokyo of making unfounded accusations against China. The tensions between Japan and China have escalated since September 2012 over a long-standing dispute over small islands (known as Senkaku in Japanese and Daoiyu in Chinese) in the East China Sea controlled by Tokyo. The South Korean government protests the Japanese government’s unjust territorial claims over a rocky outcrop, held by South Korea, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. South Korea’s foreign affairs ministry said «Japan's incorrect view of history deserves to be solemnly criticized». It further said, all these will unlikely ease ongoing tensions in the region whose stagnant economic growth could further fuel nationalist rhetoric from all sides.

The New National Defense Program Guidelines, which set policy and spending goals over a five-year period, are expected to be finalized in December after being deliberated by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner New Komeito.

Japan also plans to establish a new National Security Council that would streamline how and when Tokyo would use military force, appoint a senior officer to command troops from all three armed services, and formally designate a Marine Corps-like force to defend its vulnerable southwest islands. The new four-member council would be led by a new national security advisor who would operate with a full-time staff. Defense officials also are expected to announce this month the creation of a new post of joint forces commander. The position envisions the authority over troops from all three self-defense forces during contingency operations. The new joint commander would have authority to make cross-service decisions in the field avoiding a clumsy and time consuming process of going to the Joint Staff Office in Tokyo.

Strengthening the alliance with the USA is central to the Japan’s foreign and defense policy. In April 2012 the US and Japan signed a bilateral defense-cooperation agreement. It calls for strengthening interoperability between U.S. and Japanese forces and building permanent training facilities on Guam and in the nearby Northern Mariana Islands. Last August the U.S. and Japanese governments signed an agreement to deploy drones to monitor Chinese activity in the East China Sea. Last September Tokyo and Washington agreed to deploy a second major advanced missile defense radar on Japanese territory. With another planned to be placed in the Philippines, it will greatly enhance the capability to track ballistic missiles launched from North Korea and large parts of China. Japan has emerged as the most important U.S. partner in crafting a layered shield against ballistic missiles of all ranges. Tokyo was seeking a potential $421 million sea-based Aegis aid defense system upgrade for two guided-missile destroyers to fend off ballistic missile attacks. The US fifth-generation aircraft F-35 has already been selected to replace aging F-4s as its next mainstay fighter, a deal valued at more than $5 billion.

Russia-Japan ties

Shinzo Abe traveled to Moscow April 29 for a state visit, the first such visit by a Japanese head of state in a decade. In many ways, the recent summit can be seen as not just an important meeting but even as a landmark event in the history of Russo-Japanese relations. Against the backdrop of rising tensions in the region, especially on the Korean peninsula, Russia and Japan came to a mutual understanding of the need to strengthen the political component of their relationship. During the summit, the leaders agreed to order their foreign ministries to «accelerate talks in order to find a mutually acceptable decision» over the decades long Kuril Islands dispute. Tokyo has demanded that Moscow recognize Japan as the rightful owner of the South Kurils. Moscow maintains the issue is not negotiable. «Russia believes that despite the complexity of the problem the dialogue should be aimed at finding the mutually acceptable solution and be held in a calm and respectful atmosphere», the Kremlin said ahead of the visit. A peace treaty with Japan is still a distant, though feasible, prospect, but improvement in cooperation on energy, trade and investment is quite possible today. Abe expressed hopes that his visit to Moscow will mark «the first stage of economic diplomacy» that would make economic cooperation the centerpiece of bilateral relations. Japan is the second largest trading partner of Russia in Asia after China, with an increase in turnover of 5.3 percent in the last year to 32 billion dollars. The total accumulated investment from Japan to the Russian economy at the end of last year amounted to 10.7 billion dollars. The strategic scope of cooperation is the fuel and energy complex. Considering the strategy of phasing out nuclear power, Japan is searching for new traditional sources of energy. Russia, on its part, needs billions of dollars of investments to fund development projects of the Far East with its ample resources. Japan was informed that Gazprom is ready to take part in the construction of a terminal in Japan for liquefied natural gas and gas distribution networks. The plant, with a capacity of 15 million tons per year, will be built on the Pacific coast of Japan by the Russian Federation, and, according to the plans of Gazprom, launched in 2018. President Putin stressed that Russia was hoping to increase the number of mutually beneficial projects that will be supported by a new mutual fund – Russian-Japanese investment platform with a total capital of $1 billion. The trade turnover between Russia and Japan in 2012 reached $32 billion, a 5.3-percent increase over 2011. In January and February of 2013, Russia-Japan trade turnover totaled $4.3 billion, a 6 percent increase over the same period in 2012.

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While the world attention is diverted to the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific is becoming a volatile region with uncertain security prospects. Trends and obvious aspiration for economic cooperation mix up with rising tensions around flashpoints. Japan has an important role to determine the regional policies, the question is will be able to combine economic expediency with the revision of law to enable unrestricted military build-up and becoming a leading instrument in implementing the US announced Asia pivot. The country is still facing economic hardships; it’s far from being fully back on track. Are the growing military expenditure and hawkish US-dictated foreign policy the things the Japanese grassroots aspire for – that is the question.