Japan's ruling party yesterday endorsed a defense outline that would relax the nation's arms export ban and allow development and production of a missile defense system with the US, Japanese media reported.
The reported approval by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) defense panel paves the way for today's Cabinet approval and official announcement of the new outline of Japan's defense plan for next fiscal year.
PHOTO: EPA
The LDP panel also approved a 3.7 percent cut in defense spending to a total of ?24.24 trillion (US$233 billion) for the next five years, following an agreement reached between the defense and finance ministries, Japanese newspapers reported.
A plan to trim the Ground Self Defense Force to 155,000 by slashing 5,000 from the current level was also approved.
The new guidelines call for an easing of Japan's arms exports ban so that the nation can jointly develop and produce a missile defense system with the US, Kyodo News reported.
Japan in 1967 banned weapons shipments to communist bloc nations, countries under UN arms embargoes or those engaged in conflicts. The ban was extended in 1976 to exports to all foreign countries.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda will make an official announcement Friday, Kyodo said. Both the LDP and the Defense Agency refused to comment on yesterday's reports.
The new defense outline, which covers a period from April 1 next year through March 31, 2009, wears away at Japan's postwar policy to maintain a self-defense-only military.
The outline singles out China and North Korea as regional security concerns, and calls for a more assertive role by the military with "prompt, mobile, multifunctional and effective defense capabilities," Kyodo said.
Japan has been reviewing its defense policy amid threats from possible terrorist attacks and North Korea. The North has become one of Tokyo's biggest security worries; it test-fired a long-range ballistic missile over Japan in 1998 and has an active nuclear weapons program.
Japan's postwar pacifist constitution renounces use of force in settling international disputes.
Japanese forces possess short-range missiles under a defensive policy that falls within government interpretations of the constitution.
In a nod to preserving that policy, Japanese leaders set aside a plan to develop long-range missiles capable of making a pre-emptive strike in foreign territory, news reports said.
The LDP's coalition partner, the Komeito party, reportedly opposed the plan.
Also see story:
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant