Japan hawks unveil sweeping defense upgrade

Japan unveiled a sweeping national security strategy Tuesday that will boost defense spending and see troops and equipment shifted to the nation's southwest islands — part of a move to develop the capability to wrest islands away from would-be attackers.

The plan is a reflection of Japan's growing concerns over China's increasing military assertiveness and territorial demands. And it marks another milestone in hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plans to strengthen Japan's defense establishment and ease postwar restrictions on the armed forces.

"The security situation around Japan has become even more severe and in order to maintain peace it is necessary to implement national security policies in a more strategic and structured manner," Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday. "This does not in any way change Japan's pacifist policies, which have been consistent throughout the postwar period," the ministry said.

The comments were made at a news briefing as officials introduced Japan's first National Security Strategy.
Under the plan, which sets out both policy and budget goals, Japan will spend some $240 billion over the next five years on new equipment and related costs.

Surveillance drones and long-range surveillance planes will be acquired to patrol the East China Sea and other waters surrounding Japan. Nearly half of Japan's ground forces will be reconfigured for rapid deployment.

Significantly, a special Marine Corps-like unit will be organized to guard Japan's southwest islands, which sprawl across a vast area of ocean south of Japan's main islands. For the first time, Japan will buy V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, amphibious assault vehicles and other equipment designed primarily for amphibious warfare.

"This is a sensible plan and it's long overdue," said Grant Newsham, a senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, in Tokyo, and a former Marine Corps liaison with the Japan Ground Self Defense Force.

"It lays out a road map of how the Japan Self Defense Force will transform into something more capable and more able to defend Japan. And it's one more step in the psychological change Japan has to make in order to play a part in its own defense. It doesn't call for replacing the Americans, but it does see Japan playing something closer to a proper role."

Under the 1960 U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, U.S. forces are obligated to defend Japan if its territory comes under attack. The Obama administration says it takes no position in territorial disputes, but has pointedly declared that the Senkaku Islands, called Diaoyu in China, fall under the treaty.

Some 50,000 U.S. troops and the powerful U.S. 7^th Fleet are based in Japan.

Japanese officials have voiced increasing concerns about Chinese military activity in the region in recent years, including creation of a new air defense zone last month that includes the disputed islands.

A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said last week that Japanese concerns are misplaced.

"China is closely watching Japan's security strategy," spokesman Hong Lei said. "Japan's hyping of the so-called China threat theory has ulterior political motives."

Boosting defense has been a longtime goal for Abe, a conservative blue blood whose first term in office, in 2006-2007, ended in less than a year. That was partly due to ill health, but also because Abe pushed a conservative agenda out of tune with the public.

But the mood changed with China's rapidly expanding military and aggressive claims in the East China Sea and elsewhere. Abe regained office in a landslide a year ago, promising to focus on Japan's flagging economy, but has begun recently to re-focus on defense.

Earlier this month, he established Japan's first National Security Council, which will concentrate decisionmaking in the prime minister's office, and last week pushed through a controversial national defense secrets law. He has his eyes set next on easing constitutional restrictions on the military.

The new plan is an important step forward, but does not signal a resurgence in Japanese militarism, said Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program, at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.

"We've been talking about defending remote islands since 1994 but we haven't done anything about it. This is the first step in making that happen in the real world," Michishita said. "It's not about competing with China. We are trying to demonstrate our determination to maintain a balance of power in the region. I don't know if it's enough, but it's the best we can do."