Japan’s new center-left government will shift its focus from US-led military operations to peace-building missions under the US, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada signaled yesterday.
Okada said he had ordered his ministry to consider possible legislation that would make it easier to dispatch troops to UN-led operations to offer nation-building support.
Japan’s armed forces are barred under the country’s post-war Constitution from offensive combat operations, but they have taken part in overseas humanitarian and military support missions.
Okada criticized the former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government for sending military personnel overseas, notably to Iraq, at the request of Washington.
“The LDP tended to make use of the Self-Defense Forces under the framework of the Japan-US security alliance, rather than the United Nations,” Okada said in a speech in Tokyo.
“But I think Japan should play a bigger role in peace-building operations,” Okada said. “I don’t mean something to complement the US security alliance.”
“UN involvement is a prerequisite” for Japan sending soldiers abroad, he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said his government will not renew a naval refueling mission in the Indian Ocean that supports the war in Afghanistan.
Tokyo, seeking to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has increasingly looked for ways to show its global role in addition to contributing aid, which has long been the key tool of its foreign policy.
The government also may not have the money to complete its joint missile defense plans with the US, aimed at protecting it from regional threats such as North Korea, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said yesterday.
“The first half of the missile defense plan is complete, but we are considering what to do about the remaining half,” an official quoted Kitazawa as telling US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
“I understand how important missile defense is, but the financial authorities are taking a harsh view. However, I want to overcome this somehow,” the official quoted Kitazawa as saying.
The official did not give details of which parts of the plan might be delayed or canceled.
Japan’s ballistic missile defense program with the US includes ship-based SM-3interceptors and land-based PAC-3 interceptors, as well as sensors and joint research to upgrade the system.
Some of Japan’s PAC-3 missile interceptors were deployed in April, when North Korea conducted what it said was a satellite launch on a flight path over northern Japan.
The Japanese official quoted Gates as saying financial authorities were always strict and adding that the missile defense plan was a wonderful example of success in the US-Japan alliance.
Japan’s defense budget has been falling for seven straight years, reaching about ¥4.7 trillion (US$51.9 billion) in the year that ended in March and is set for further cutbacks, domestic media say.
The defense ministry has allocated between ¥100 billion and ¥180 billion a year to the missile defense project since 2004.
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