A Japanese government panel will recommend deploying more armed forces in coastal areas that have seen heavy Chinese naval traffic and relaxing rules on nuclear arms transfers, two newspapers reported yesterday.
The expert panel says that Japan’s Cold-War era defense guidelines have become outdated and that the nation must prepare for “contingencies” on the Korean Peninsula and in the Taiwan Strait, and small-scale invasions.
The recommendations will be sent early next month to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan before Japan revises its defense guidelines in December, the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun reported without disclosing their sources.
Japan has relied on the US for defense and nuclear deterrence since the end of World War II.
Japan has also had a policy of not making, owning or allowing on its territory any nuclear weapons and has campaigned for their abolition, seeking to prevent more atomic attacks such as those on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
However, the panel recommends that Japan permit the transfer of nuclear arms through its territory — something Japan has already secretly allowed US forces to do in the past, according to recently released documents.
The draft recommendations say the US “nuclear umbrella” to protect Japan is necessary and “does not necessarily contradict the goal of a total elimination of nuclear weapons,” the Asahi said.
The panel, made up of defense experts, academics and former officials, also says Japan should be able to take military action to defend the US without breaching its war-renouncing constitution.
Both Washington and Tokyo have long pointed at the threat of North Korea.
“From the viewpoint of strengthening the Japan-US alliance, there should be political will ... to allow [Japanese forces] to attack missiles bound for the United States,” the Yomiuri quotes the draft as saying.
Japan and the US have also voiced concern about the military buildup of China and its development of a blue-water fleet as it has asserted its claims to maritime areas disputed with its neighbors.
Earlier this year, Japanese warships followed Chinese naval flotillas, including submarines, that were sailing in international waters between southern Japanese islands — an act perceived as provocative by Tokyo. China responded to the surveillance by buzzing the Japanese ships with helicopters in close fly-bys, sparking protests by Tokyo.
The draft recommendation proposes that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces no longer be evenly deployed throughout the country, but that more forces be shifted to southern islands near those Chinese naval routes, the reports said.
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