News Story: Japan refuels US missile defense ships under new security laws

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Maritime Self-Defense Force has refueled U.S. ships patrolling to counter North Korean missile launches under new security laws that took effect last year, a Japanese government source said Thursday.

The refueling missions to U.S. Aegis ships sailing in the Sea of Japan were conducted multiple times since April, making them the second instance in which Japanese Self-Defense Forces were known to have performed their expanded roles under the security legislation.

The legislation has loosened the constraints of Japan's war-renouncing postwar Constitution imposed on the activities of the defense forces, setting the stage for U.S. and Japanese troops to work more closely than ever.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the SDF personnel are engaging in activities to provide supplies to the U.S. military based on the legislation, but refrained from acknowledging specific operations.

"I cannot comment on the issue because it will unveil the details of the operations of the SDF and the U.S. military," the chief Cabinet secretary said at a regular press conference.

In May, the MSDF engaged in a mission to protect a U.S. Navy vessel off Japan for the first time under the legislation, although Tokyo has also not officially confirmed that operation to avoid impacting U.S. military activities and bilateral relations.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: U.S. Air Force secretary reaffirms commitment to defense of S. Korea

USAF Secretary Heather Wilson (Image: Wiki Commons)

By Lee Haye-ah

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said Friday that Washington remains committed to defending South Korea against North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile threats.

The reaffirmation came after top U.S. military officials, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford and the chiefs of the U.S. Pacific and Strategic commands, traveled to South Korea amid escalating tensions with Pyongyang.

"The United States stands firmly with its allies and our commitment to the collective self-defense of the Korean Peninsula," Wilson told reporters at the Pentagon.

Tensions flared earlier this month when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to unleash "fire and fury" on Pyongyang, and the regime responded with threats to fire ballistic missiles toward Guam.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Story: Japan could intercept N. Korean missiles if threatened by attack on Guam - minister

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Aug. 10 expressed the view that Japan could intercept a missile from North Korea heading for Guam as an act of collective self-defense if such an attack posed a crisis threatening Japan's existence.

"It cannot be ruled out that a deficiency in U.S. deterrence and striking power could constitute a crisis threatening Japan's existence," Onodera said during a meeting of the House of Representatives Committee on Security.

Onodera's statement came in response to a question from Yuichi Goto of the opposition Democratic Party.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Report: Japan Ready to Intercept Guam-Bound North Korean Missiles

Japanese Patriot Missile Defense system

Japan's Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Thursday his country could strike down North Korean missiles fired toward the US island of Guam if they passed over the Japanese territory.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — "Japan is constantly maintaining readiness for any eventuality," the new defense minister said, according to the Kyodo news agency. He added Tokyo would invoke its right to collective self-defense to guarantee security of entire Japan.

North Korea’s state agency KCNA reported earlier in the day that its military planned to complete a plan by mid-August to hit waters off Guam with four medium-range missiles. It said they would fly over three Japanese prefectures.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.

News Story: Agency mulls expanding Japan's subsidized defense tech research overseas

The Defense Ministry's Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Agency (ATLA) is considering allowing bodies headed by foreign nationals to apply for state subsidies for defense technology research to tap cutting-edge technologies from abroad, it has been learned.

Currently, the nationality of the head researcher of a team applying for funding as "contract research fees" under the agency's defense technology research promotion system must be Japanese, but the new plan would open the door to companies, universities and other research institutions outside Japan.

The system, introduced in fiscal 2015, is aimed at commissioning universities and companies to conduct advanced basic research that is applicable to defense equipment. Because of this, the agency has been accused of promoting "military research." The agency's latest move may therefore spark a backlash. In March this year, the Science Council of Japan released a statement, denouncing the system as "fraught with problems from the perspective of sound development of science."

The agency believes it is necessary to widely solicit advanced research from around the world in order to maintain and improve technological superiority in national security. The agency views the U.S. military's system to provide research funds to overseas researchers as an example, and has even mulled expanding its current system to provide a joint funding system along with the United States and other allies.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Report: The Remilitarization of Japan, Explained

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is setting the country on course for remilitarization, much to the exasperation of Japan's wartime enemies, China and South Korea.

On Wednesday, May 3, the outgoing nationalist Abe declared that he hopes to see a revised constitution implemented by 2020, when Tokyo is set to host the Olympics. The proclamation underscored what many have suspected up until now to be the prime minister's intention to move Japan away from its post-World War II pacifist posture, toward a more active one in the Asia-Pacific security environment. 

Japan's constitution was rewritten in 1947 after the country's formal surrender to the allied forces in September of 1945. The constitution was largely constructed by a new Japanese government under the auspices of the allied powers, principally the United States. Although Japan made some reparations to the countries in which its army committed atrocities, namely South Korea and China, the allied forces sought more than its penitence. They uprooted the country's entire political system, including the removal of the Emperor Hirohito as executive head of state, and imposed the now notorious Article 9 on the Japanese constitution.

News Story: PM's call for revisions to Article 9 of Constitution puzzle even ruling parties

Remarks made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his video message unveiled on May 3 to the effect that he aims to revise the Constitution including its war-renouncing Article 9 and ensure the revision will come into force in 2020 have perplexed ruling coalition legislators.

There is no clear road map toward achieving the goal set by the prime minister. Attention has been focused on whether the prime minister's move will help speed up Diet discussions on constitutional revisions or make it more difficult for ruling and opposition parties to agree on the issue.

Shortly after the July 2016 House of Councillors election, Prime Minister Abe told an acquaintance who visited his office that he was aiming to add a third paragraph to Article 9 to specify the existence of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF). During the campaign period for the election, the prime minister had refrained from mentioning the constitutional issue. However, the prime minister had apparently been considering the timing of announcing his intentions since after the election.

So why did the prime minister declare his intention in the video message released on May 3? A senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) legislator, who had previously served as a Cabinet minister, said, "He appears to have lost his patience with the lack of progress in discussions at the commissions on the Constitution in both chambers of the Diet."

Debate on constitutional revisions has not been progressing at the House of Representatives Commission on the Constitution as the LDP had planned, due to the fallout from a conflict between the ruling and opposition parties in other Diet panels. The senior LDP legislator believes that the prime minister made the remarks with the aim of putting pressure on his own party prior to the resumption of discussions at the lower house commission on May 11 after deeming that the panel would never be able to narrow down clauses to be revised under current circumstances.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: Questions raised after Japan issues order to protect U.S. ships

Concerns could be raised that the latest dispatch of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) helicopter carrier Izumo to protect a U.S. Navy supply ship in the Pacific Ocean will lead to the unlimited expansion of Japan's operations to guard U.S. military vessels.

In December last year, the government worked out guidelines for Self-Defense Force (SDF) missions to protect the vessels of U.S. troops engaged in operations that contribute to the defense of Japan in cooperation with the SDF. Such operations are based on Paragraph 2, Article 95 of the SDF Act. The provision allows minimal use of weapons by SDF personnel participating in such missions.

The Defense Ministry conducted a command-post exercise in January assuming a mission to guard U.S. vessels. The government had initially planned to have the MSDF guard U.S. vessels during Japan-U.S. joint exercises to be held before this coming autumn, and then launch full-scale operations, according to sources close to the government. However, Japan brought forward the launch as tensions over North Korea heightened in April, the sources said.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Report: Japanese Politician - Trump Message on Defense Should Spark Wake Up Call in Tokyo

By: John Grady

President Donald Trump’s message to Tokyo to pick up more of the burden in the defense alliance “should be a trigger for us” to examine “our own thoughts of security,” a founder of the Japan Innovation Party told an audience at a Washington, D.C., think tank Monday.

Toru Hashimoto, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump was correct in saying Japan needed to strengthen its Self-Defense Force to better defend itself. The former governor of Osaka Prefecture and mayor of Osaka city said Japan’s political leadership needs to explain especially to the younger generation what the treaty alliance means in terms of Tokyo’s commitment to respond in case the United States is attacked as well as what the American obligations are.

“We are not in the situation now to fight for the United States,” Hashimoto said, either in military terms or with the strong support of the Japanese public. “Japan needs to contribute to the defense of the United States.”

“This is the kind of change we need to bring about in the third generation,” but it will not be an easy sell among the youngest segment of Japan’s population.

News Report: Tokyo's Rising Military Might Threatens to Upset Fragile Pacific Balance

Japan’s Defense Minister Tomomi Inada stated that the country’s Self-Defense Forces have the right to launch strikes against enemy territory, raising concerns about the prospects of Tokyo’s ongoing military buildup.

Inada made this statement in response to the latest North Korean ballistic missile tests, adding that Tokyo considers all available means of protecting the national security, including military strikes against enemy targets abroad.

However, it remains unclear whether this stance contradicts Japan’s pacifist constitution

In recent years Tokyo has significantly increased the country’s defense budget, ramping up annual military spending up to $41.7 billion in 2016 and to $44.64 in 2017.

In 2015 Japan’s parliament approved legislation that allows Japanese troops to be deployed overseas on combat missions and to participate in armed conflicts abroad, effectively overruling the nation’s previous ‘self-defense only’ policy.

In 2016 Japan ranked seventh in the Global Firepower military strength rating, surpassing the military capabilities of countries like Turkey and Germany.

News Report: No Thanks - Japan Rules Out Participation in Anti-Daesh Operations

Japan's Self-Defense Forces won't take part in operations against Daesh, a violent extremist group operating in the Middle East, as well as in potential conflict in the South China Sea, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Inada said Tokyo excludes the possibility of Japanese forces taking part in operations against Daesh, as well as of sending military ships to the South China Sea in case of escalation in the region.

"As for the fight against the IS [Daesh], our Self-Defense Forces will not take part in it," the minister said in her interview with the NHK channel, adding that the country's ships will not be deployed to the South China Sea as well.

Daesh, which is banned in a number of countries around the world emerged in 2014 amid ravaging wars in the Middle East. The group, known for it atrocities, has claimed large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria, proclaiming a caliphate there.

News Story: Japan to conduct simulated drills for China-Taiwan clash

Japan will carry out a tabletop exercise next week to simulate its response in the event of a military clash between China and Taiwan, Japanese media said.

The Self-Defence Forces will conduct drills from Monday through Friday with the US military participating as an observer, a Japanese government source told Kyodo News.

The exercises, which do not involve actual troop deployments, assume that the US and Japan are responding to a military conflict, Kyodo said in its Thursday report.

A Japanese defence ministry spokesman declined to comment.

China's foreign ministry said Japan should keep out of what it called an "internal affair".

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

News Story: (Japan) Internal affairs ministry recommends releasing Q&A list on collective self-defense

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry has recommended releasing a list of questions and answers prepared by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau over the reinterpretation of Japan's Constitution, which was approved by the Cabinet in July 2014, to allow the country to exercise the right to collective defense.

The ministry's Information Disclosure and Personal Information Protection Review Board made the recommendation in a notice dated Jan. 17, saying the document should be subject to information disclosure and thus made public.

According to the recommendation and related information, the bureau produced a list of 23 possible questions and answers on the rationale for exercising the right to collective self-defense for Diet deliberations. The list has two versions -- one approved by the bureau's deputy director-general, and another without such approval.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: Japanese PM urges SDF to undertake new tasks at home, abroad following controversial security legislation

TOKYO, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel Sunday at a parade review held near Tokyo to earnestly take their "responsibilities and missions" at home and abroad.

The instruction came after controversial security legislation was enacted in March, expanding the role of the SDF despite the inherent contradictions to Japan's own pacifist Constitution.

The Japanese prime minister told some 4,000 SDF personnel in attendance that under the new security laws, they should expect to undertake the new tasks in their upcoming roles.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Stay vigilant to Japan's "China Threat" (China's View)

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Once again, in its latest defense white paper, Japan has shamelessly accused China of jeopardizing regional peace and stability, playing up the "China Threat" for its own right-wing agenda.

As the Abe administration moves Japan's security policy further and further to the right, rebuilding the country as a military power, those neighboring nations who remember the past look on aghast.

The new defense paper adopts an even more confrontational tone compared to previous ones, accusing China of "changing the status quo by relying on its strength" and expressing "deep concern" over China's activities in the East and South China seas.

If history is indeed a mirror, then surely that mirror reflects Japan's recent record of stirring up regional trouble and enmity wherever and whenever it can. If there is any meddling with the status quo, it is easy to see that Japan is the meddlesome one.

Read the full story at Xinhua

PacificSentinel: Well, this is the single most obvious piece of Chinese Propaganda I've ever seen. The Japan of today is a VERY different place to that of the war years, PM Abe isn't looking to start wars, he just want's to allow Japan to operate as any other country does, with the right and ability to deploy it's Defense Force as needed, primarily in defense of Japan, but also to aid their Friends & Allies, who would aid Japan in return if needed. Welcome to the modern era china, time to leave the past where it belongs.

News Story: Seoul, Beijing blast Japan's defense paper as Tokyo seeks stronger military role in Asia-Pacific

BEIJING/SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- South Korea has joined China in opposing Japan's 2016 defense white paper, a policy document Tokyo is using to justify its efforts to move away from an isolated and pacifistic defense posture to a more active one.

SEOUL'S OBJECTIONS

South Korea on Tuesday lodged a strong protest against Japan's repeated territorial claims on its easternmost islets, called Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan, lying halfway between the two countries.

Seoul's Defense Ministry called in a defense attache from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul to protest against the white paper, in which the islets are described as Japan's territory.

It marked the 12th consecutive year since 2005 that Japan has claimed sovereignty over the islets in the annual paper.

The ministry expressed deep regrets over the Japanese government in its protest letter, delivered to the summoned attache, saying Japan must immediately stop making useless claims, squarely face history and make efforts to open a new future for relations between South Korea and Japan.

The protest letter said that South Korea's military will take strong actions against any Japanese attempt to damage South Korea's sovereignty over the Dokdo islets.

Seoul's Foreign Ministry also summoned an official from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, lodging an official protest against the annual white paper.

The foreign ministry said in a statement that South Korea strongly protests against Japan's unjust territorial claims on the Dokdo islets, which it said are its indigenous territory historically, geographically and according to international laws.

The statement called on Japan to squarely face historical facts and immediately stop making groundless claims, saying Japan must make efforts to move toward a new future for South Korea-Japan relations based on trust.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Japan's defense white paper hypes up "China threat" for hidden agenda

by Xinhua Writer Zhu Feng

TOKYO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Japan's government approved a defense white paper on Tuesday, with a large portion of the document focusing on China's normal and legal maritime activities in the East and South China Seas.

The 480-page white paper devoted 30 pages to China, preaching the so-called "China military threat," especially China's "military threat on the sea."

Meanwhile, it endorsed the U.S. "Asia-Pacific Rebalance" strategy and Japan's newly-passed security bill, which allows Japan's Self Defense Forces to fight abroad even if Japan itself is not under attack.

This is nothing new for the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that has time and again tried to trick the Japanese public into following its rightist agenda.

The white paper, on the one hand, aims to rebuild Japan, which brutalized its Asian neighbors during World War II, as a military power under the pretext of "China threat."

For a country which is reluctant to face up to its ignominious wartime history squarely, its attempts to beef up military power will pose a serious threat to world peace.

The Abe administration is good at meddling in the South China Sea issue under the guise of "positive pacifism," which actually calls for "military contributions" to deliver world peace and security.

The real purpose of the document is to tarnish China's image, contain China's peaceful rise, and offset its growing international influence, particularly its clout in the Asia Pacific.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Okinawans demand closure of U.S. bases on anniversary of island's return to Japan

U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station

TOKYO, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Around 1,000 protesters marched in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, on Sunday in protest against the relocation of a controversial U.S. military base and demanded the closure of all bases on the island.

The demonstration coincided with the 44th anniversary of the return of Okinawa from the U.S. rule to Japan.

The marchers held placards saying they opposed the Japanese and U.S. plans to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station from Ginowan to the less-populated coastal region of Henoko, also on Okinawa island.

In 1996 the Japanese and U.S. governments inked an accord to close down the Futenma base and return the land occupied by the facility to Okinawa, with the transfer of the base's functions aimed partly at reducing the burden on Okinawa and its people.

The demonstrators marched close to the controversial base located in the densely-populated region of Ginowan, as well as close to sites that were associated with the bloody Battle of Okinawa in 1945, which was the U.S. only land assault on Japan during WWII and saw more than 100,000 Japanese soldiers and as many civilians killed during the hostilities.

The demonstrators, while calling for the closure of the Futenma base, were also demanding the closure of all U.S. bases on their island.

They also called for an end to war and for the scrapping of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "security plans." The recent enacting of related bills could see Japanese troops deployed to active war theaters overseas for the first time since WWII and in blatant violation of the nation's pacifist constitution.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: How Abe's new security laws violate constitution (China's View)

by Yan Lei, Liu Xiuling

TOKYO, May 12 (Xinhua) -- "The new security laws are in violation of the pacifist constitution. They and Abe's attempts to amend the constitution, could see Japan return to militarism and are absolutely unacceptable to the people," said constitutional scholar Makoto Ito in a recent interview with Xinhua.

More than 700 people in Japan filed two class-action lawsuits against the Japanese government, seeking an injunction to block the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel under the new laws, as well as state compensation for emotional damages.

Ito, a lawyer and representative of the civil group "Legal Actions against the Security Bills", said the people were working to scrap the security laws and voice their anger at the Abe administration.

"The security laws are definitely in violation of Japan's constitution," said Ito, who is also the chairman of the Japan Institute of Constitutional Law, a private non-profit organization dedicated to research and public education on the principles of the Constitution.

"Article 9 of Japan's constitution stipulates 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. It also says that Japan does not recognize the right of belligerency of the state. However, if Japan's Self-Defense Forces fight overseas together with armies of other countries, it means that Japan is fighting a war. It's definitely against the pacifist constitution," said Ito.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Lawsuits filed with Japan's Supreme Court could scupper controversial security laws (China's View)

TOKYO, April 29 (Xinhua) -- With thousands more plaintiffs gearing up to file lawsuits over constitutionality of the newly-enforced security laws, Japanese people are launching a fresh offensive to scrap the controversial "war legislation."

More than 500 people in Tokyo and about 200 in Fukushima Prefecture filed class-action lawsuits Tuesday against the Japanese government, arguing that the security laws violate Japan's pacifist constitution and damage the Japanese people's right to peaceful survival.

The plaintiffs, including constitutional scholars, legal professionals and war victims, are seeking an injunction to block the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces personnel under the new legislation, as well as state compensation for emotional damages caused by a "culture of fear."

These are the first of a series of lawsuits to be filed across the nation by a group of experts. Similar suits will be filed in Osaka, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other major cities across the nation, by a group of legal specialists, lawyers, constitutional experts, including professors and former judges.

"We have a chance to win, as we have over 600 lawyers representing the plaintiffs, including former judges and prosecutors." said Makoto Ito, a lawyer and representative of the group "Legal Actions against the Security Bills."

"Not to mention the fact that the former chief of the Supreme Court of Japan also believes that the security laws violate the constitution," he added.

However, not all observers here are optimistic about the prospect of the lawsuits.

Read the full story at Xinhua