Text Fwd: Japan Shifts Military Policy Focus To China, Island Dispute 일본, 군사 정책 촛점을 중국과 섬 논쟁으로 바꾸다

Stop NATO
Asahi Shimbun
December 11, 2010
Defense policy shifting focus to China's military
BY KENTARO KAWAGUCHI


-The new appendix calls for increasing the number of submarines from the current 16 to 22 and includes mention of the next-generation fighter jets.
It also calls for increasing the number of Aegis destroyers from the current four.


The government plans to discard its Cold War defense philosophy and shift to a posture that can effectively deal with possible contingencies on Japan's vulnerable southern islands and China's growing military presence.

The main points of the National Defense Program Guidelines to be released this month will move away from a setup preparing for an invasion by the Soviet Union to a dynamic defense capability that emphasizes mobility.

Since the first National Defense Program Guidelines were released in 1976, the emphasis has been on deploying the Self-Defense Forces uniformly around the nation.

This year's revision will be the first to introduce the concept of "dynamic defense capabilities."

Rather than seek a uniform deployment of SDF troops, the new guidelines will emphasize mobility and readiness to allow the SDF to respond to terrorist acts or an invasion of outlying islands.

The guidelines will also raise concerns about the Chinese Navy's rising presence in waters around Japan.

China has increased its military spending by double-digit rates for 21 straight years. In April, China sent its most advanced submarines as part of a fleet engaged in a training exercise that included navigating between the main Okinawa island and Miyakojima island.

The guidelines describe such actions by China as "matters of concern" for the region as well as international community.

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See also
Stop NATO
Japanese Politicians Land On China-Claimed Island
Radio Netherlands
December 11, 2010
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Blog site

Text Fwd: [Rick Rozoff] U.S. Supports Japan, Confronts China And Russia Over Island Disputes 미국, 일본의 중국과 러시아와의 군도 분쟁에서 일본 지지, 중.러와 대립

* Image sources: same as the link

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Rick Rozoff blog
Stop NATO
November 4, 2010
U.S. Supports Japan, Confronts China And Russia Over Island Disputes
Rick Rozoff

In a six-day span the U.S. State Department has bluntly affirmed unequivocal backing for Japanese territorial claims against both Russia and China, even invoking a defense treaty provision that could lead to direct military intervention and war with the world's most populous nation.

Beginning a 13-day, seven-nation tour of the Asia-Pacific region on October 27 in Hawaii, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and met with Admiral Robert Willard, head of U.S. Pacific Command - the largest overseas regional military command in the world - and held a joint press conference with new Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara in Honolulu.

Clinton's comments on the occasion underlined Washington's increasingly assertive - and intrusive - role in East Asia and the Western Pacific Ocean. They included:

"This year, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our alliance, which was forged at the height of the Cold War. At the time, President Eisenhower described the indestructible partnership between our two countries, and time has proven him right. The world's geopolitical landscape has shifted many times since then, but the partnership between the United States and Japan has endured....This alliance is the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia Pacific..... I'm grateful that we are the two largest contributors to reconstruction in Afghanistan." [1]

Responding to a question from the press corps on an East China Sea island chain contested by Japan and China - the Senkaku Islands in the Japanese designation and the Diaoyu Islands in the Chinese - near which a Chinese trawler collided with two Japanese coast guard ships on September 7, almost leading to an international incident, Clinton added that for the government she represents "the Senkakus fall within the scope of Article 5 of the 1960 U.S.-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. This is part of the larger commitment that the United States has made to Japan’s security. We consider the Japanese-U.S. alliance one of the most important alliance partnerships we have anywhere in the world and we are committed to our obligations to protect the Japanese." [2]

Clinton's raising Article 5 of the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, which states that "Each Party recognizes that an armed attack against either Party in the territories under the administration of Japan would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger," paralleled and followed by three months a similar attempt to intervene against China in the South China Sea.

On July 23 Clinton spoke at the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Hanoi, Vietnam, and alluding to disputes in the South China Sea between China and ASEAN member states Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei over the Spratly Islands and between China and Vietnam over the Paracel Islands, she maintained that "The United States, like every nation, has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons, and respect for international law in the South China Sea....We oppose the use or threat of force by any claimant." [3] Clinton had the temerity to evoke the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the U.S. has not ratified.

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[Site Fwd] Peace Philiosophy Center: Wada Haruki: "China-Japan, Facing Necessity to Dissolve the Conflicts over Senkaku Islands through Dialogue" 하루키

* Image source: same as the link
Wada Haruki 和田春樹, 와다 하루키
- from Kyunghyang Shinmoon

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* 캐나다 소재, 사토코 노리마투가 이끄는 평화 철학 센터가 경향 신문 칼럼, 와다 하루키 교수의 '중.일 센카쿠 열도 문제 대화로 풀어야' 기사를 일본, 영어로 소개한 글입니다. 경향 신문 국문은 여기를 가시길.
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Peace Philosophy Center
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
和田春樹「日中は尖閣島問題を対話で解決すべき」
Haruki: "China-Japan, Facing Necessity to Dissolve the Conflicts over Senkaku Islands through Dialogue"

Here is the Japanese version of a column written on the disupte over Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands by Wada Haruki, professor emeritus of Tokyo University, "China-Japan, Facing Necessity to Dissolve the Conflicts over Senkaku Islands through Dialogue." It appeared on the October 4th issue of Kyunghyang Shinmoon, a newspaper in Korea.

See the Korean version HERE. 경향 신문 국문

An English version was published on Japan Focus: Asia-Pacific Journal.　Click HERE.

Text Fwd: Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands: Pentagon Ready To Back Japan Against China 센카쿠/다이오유 군도: 미 국방부, 일본을 중국에 맞서게 지지할 준비

* Image source: Mainichi Daily News
'Defense Secretary Robert Gates, second from right, and Japan's Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, far left,
sit for a meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, Monday, Oct. 11, 2010.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, Pool)'

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StopNATO
Mainichi Daily News
Kyodo News
October 11, 2010
Japan, U.S. affirm cooperation on disputed Senkaku Islands

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-During their talks, [Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi] Kitazawa told Gates
that Japan is grateful the United States has stated that the Senkaku Islands in
the East China Sea are covered by the Japan-U.S. security pact....Kitazawa was
referring to Sept. 23 remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who
told Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara that the disputed isles
administered by Japan, but claimed by China, are subject to Article 5 of the
bilateral security treaty, which allows for Washington to retaliate against a
military strike on Japanese territory.
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HANOI: Japanese and U.S. defense chiefs agreed in their talks Monday that their
countries will jointly respond in line with a bilateral security pact toward
stability in areas in the East China Sea covering the Senkaku Islands that came
into the spotlight in disputes between Japan and China, according to Japanese
officials.

The officials said Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa his U.S.
counterpart Robert Gates also affirmed the need for strengthening collaboration
with countries in the region over the situation in the East China Sea.

Kitazawa reaffirmed with Gates the policy to implement an accord reached in May
to transfer the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa and told
him of the Japanese Defense Ministry's proactive stance toward reviewing the
country's policy of banning arms exports, the officials said.

Kitazawa, an advocate of reviewing the policy, said earlier that the arms export
ban has prevented Japan's defense industry from participating in joint
international technological development, potentially putting it at a
disadvantage in the race for defense business.

During their talks, Kitazawa told Gates that Japan is grateful the United States
has stated that the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea are covered by the
Japan-U.S. security pact, the officials said.

Kitazawa was referring to Sept. 23 remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton who told Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara that the disputed isles
administered by Japan, but claimed by China, are subject to Article 5 of the
bilateral security treaty, which allows for Washington to retaliate against a
military strike on Japanese territory.

Gates indicated that the United States and Japan will work together in this
area, the officials said.

Touching on China's growing military presence in waters around Japan and the
Pacific, Gates also noted the importance for the two countries to strengthen
collaboration with countries in the region, according to the officials.

He may have been referring to Vietnam and other countries which are increasingly
getting anxious about China over territorial disputes concerning the Spratly
Islands and the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea.

On the Futenma issue, Kitazawa was quoted as saying, "It's important to win the
understanding of Okinawan people and reduce burdens on them to realize the
relocation." Gates stressed the need to steadily implement the relocation and
the transfer of Marines to Guam, the officials said.

Bilateral ties between Japan and China had chilled following Sept. 7 collisions
between a Chinese trawler and two Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats near the
disputed islands.

Kitazawa and Gates met on the sidelines of a gathering of defense ministers from
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Vietnamese capital.
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* For the counter research of the content against the Mainichi article above, you may refer to:

Peace Philosophy Center blog(click)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Did Clinton really say ANPO applies to Senkaku?
「クリントンが『尖閣は安保５条の適用対象』と言った」というのは前原外相が言っているだけでどこにも証拠がない
(English-language readers - this is about Japan's Foreign Minister Maehara's possible misrepresentation of Hilary Clinton from their talk in New York on September 23, 2010.)