Saturday, May 30, 2015

New Defense Cooperation Guidelines

     One month back, on 27 April, the so-called two and two, namely the Foreign and Defense Ministers, of Japan and the US agreed on the New Defense Cooperation Guidelines.  In many ways the new Guidelines make us wonder if they are putting us in greater danger.

     They say, and repeat over and over again, more than a dozen times, that the alliance between the two will be such that it will be seamless, meaning that it will cover all sorts of situation from the normal times to the emergency.

     Then they say that the US will continue to provide deterrence to Japan through all her capability including nuclear fighting power.  What is surprising is that this is not a unilateral US policy but what Japan has accepted.  It shows Japan believes in the nuclear deterrence.  This is only weeks before the NPT Conference at the UN has ended in failure betraying the hopes of billions.

     They stressed that the alliance must be made global in nature.  It is said that the Japanese SDF could be mobilized to defend Japan against ballistic missiles, and may try to retake Japan's own islands when necessary.  One can easily see that this is basically a military document.

     Furthermore, they say that the SDF will come to the aid of those countries which are in close relations with Japan, when they are attacked in such a way as to endanger the existence of Japan.  It is presumed that the US and Australia are meant by these lines.  This is what is known as the issue of collective self-defense.  The present Abe's Government decided on 1 July 2014 that Japan is able to exercise her 'inherent right of collective self-defense' as is mentioned in Article 51 of the UN Charter.
   
     A collection of Bills, collectively called the War Bills by critics, embodying the above and more, has been presented to the Parliament, and has been discussed from 27 of May.  On the same day Mr. Onaga, Governor of Okinawa Prefecture, left for the US to appeal to the public opinion against the US plan to build a new, huge and permanent air base in his Prefecture.  He is overwhelmingly backed by the public opinion there.   

Friday, May 15, 2015

Abe's Congressional Speech

     Japan's Prime Minister Abe made a 45-minute speech before the joint session of the US Congress at the end of April, 2015.  His defense talks with Obama will be discussed later.  Here we will look into the speech to see how statesman-like it was.

     He duly expressed his 'eternal condolences' to the Americans who lost their lives in the War.  He concluded his speech saying that the two countries will work 'to make the world a better, a much better, place to live', which was good by itself.  On the Asians, however, what he said was too short, and it was not easy to comprehend what he meant by it.  All that he said was 'Our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries.  We must not avert our eyes from that.  I will uphold the views expressed by the previous prime ministers in this regard'.  He could have talked here why Japan fought one war after another in the half century from 1894 to 1945. He could even said his opinion on the still widely held view that the atomic bombs were necessary to end the War, if at all he had to touch upon the War.

     Apparently he likes to compare himself to his grandfather.  Perhaps that would explain the motives for some of his actions.  He did so twice on this occasion. We are rather surprised to hear, in effect, that Kishi was a believer in democratic ideals.

     He repeatedly talked of peace and prosperity, but not in concrete terms.  We are not told of the details of the ongoing TPP negotiations.  When he says that 'the goal is near', we get very apprehensive.  It is as if he is making use of it to introduce reforms in our economy.  Agriculture is one such sector.  But why is it that agriculture does not pay nowadays?  Why is it that, as Abe says, the agricultural population is aging?  And why there is 'depopulation'?  He may plan the economy in such a way that the birth rate will recover to maintain the labour force, not only in quantitative terms, but a better educated, healthier and more contented labour force.

     Abe devotes roughly a quarter of his speech to strengthening the Japan-US military alliance.  He wants to make it 'seemless'.  He calls it 'credible deterrence for the peace in the region'.  But why stick to these Cold-War concepts?  Deterrence against whom?  Does the speech talk of any political initiative to take on the threat, if there is any?  None.  So the alliance is purely a military doctrine.  From the fact that he does not mention China at all in the speech, it is clear, is it not, that in his mind the alliance is against China.  It is another matter if the US would agree.  The US may not.  That means there will be the second edition of the Nixon shock of 1971.  Peace should be fought for, not by military means, not by the amount of money and the number of soldiers, but by peaceful means.  It is doubtful if Abe sees things that way, and here he is following his grandfather.