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Japan pursues military ambitions
HU XUAN Updated: 2003-11-26 08:15
In a controversial move that would overturn a longstanding ban on weapons
exports, Japan's Defence Agency has signalled it wants to jointly manufacture
missile parts with the United States.
The newspaper Asahi Shimbun
revealed on Monday that the Defence Agency is seeking 134.1 billion yen (US$1.2
billion) in the next fiscal budget to purchase a missile system developed by the
United States. It would deploy the surface-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3
(PAC) system in the Kanto region along with an Aegis destroyer-based standard
Missile 3 (SM3) system.
The two countries are currently trying to
produce a more effective system than the SM3 which would be able to destroy a
wider range of incoming ballistic missiles more quickly.
This would
require revising Japan's current ban on arms exports which was adopted by the
Japanese Government in 1976.
Liberal Democratic Party executive Fumio
Kyuma, a former Defence Agency director-general, said on Friday that it is time
to rethink the export ban.
During his meeting with US Defence Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld on November 15, Defence Agency Chief Shigeru Ishiba said the
export ban was a key obstacle to joint mass production of the new missile
defence system.
These remarks were undoubtedly intended to add momentum
to debate about the ban within the ruling coalition.
But the Japanese
Government is again exaggerating the so-called threats posed by neighbouring
countries to realize its long pent-up military ambitions.
In the annual
white paper released by its Defence Agency in early August, the Japanese
Government stressed the importance of a missile defence system against alleged
nuclear threats from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Therefore, Japan argued that the collaboration with the United States on the
research and deployment of a missile defence shield is a justifiable means of
self-defence and also a deterrent to any future threats.
But this
justification is unconvincing.
The possibility of the DPRK launching a
military attack against its economically and militarily much stronger neighbour
is slim.
The possibility of the peaceful resolution to the nuclear crisis
on the Korean Peninsula through development and deployment of more sophisticated
weaponry is also extremely slim.
What Japan really needs to rethink is
its security policies on expanding its international presence rather than its
current ban on the export of weapons.
(China Daily )
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