Legislation to spell out how Japanese authorities can use troops to defend the country's borders or counter a terrorist strike has passed a key Cabinet committee, a government official said yesterday.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pushed to broaden the role of Japan's military, which operates under tight restrictions imposed by its post-World War II pacifist constitution. Critics say sending troops on peacekeeping missions violates the Constitution and worry that deploying forces at home might invite rights abuses.
The committee approved the package, comprising seven bills, on Tuesday, Cabinet official Takeshi Sato said. It must win the Cabinet's endorsement before being submitted to parliament next month, he said.
Until now, the military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, was charged with defending the country in times of war, but had no clear guidelines.
The legislation would give power to local and national authorities to request troops if a foreign force invades Japan or if terrorists strike. It also would divide responsibilities among ministries for alerting and evacuating residents, and allow Japanese forces to supply and support US forces acting in Japan's defense.
Roughly 50,000 American troops are based in Japan under a join security treaty.
The proposals come as Tokyo considers bolstering its military with a US-developed missile defense system.
Tokyo began drawing up specific guidelines for its troops following the September 2001 suicide attacks in the US.
In October 2001, Koizumi pushed through a law authorizing Japanese warships to provide logistical support for US-led forces in Afghanistan. Last July, parliament approved the dispatch of troops for homeland security and to aid reconstruction in Iraq.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda on Tuesday sought to allay concerns about the bill, saying that a stronger military wouldn't mean civil rights abuses. Officials have said the proposed legislation wouldn't let troops occupy private land if they are refused entry by landowners, and would force the government to compensate for injuries or damages.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
A deluge of disinformation about a virus called hMPV is stoking anti-China sentiment across Asia and spurring unfounded concerns of renewed lockdowns, despite experts dismissing comparisons with the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. Agence France-Presse’s fact-checkers have debunked a slew of social media posts about the usually non-fatal respiratory disease human metapneumovirus after cases rose in China. Many of these posts claimed that people were dying and that a national emergency had been declared. Garnering tens of thousands of views, some posts recycled old footage from China’s draconian lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in the country in late
French police on Monday arrested a man in his 20s on suspicion of murder after an 11-year-old girl was found dead in a wood south of Paris over the weekend in a killing that sparked shock and a massive search for clues. The girl, named as Louise, was found stabbed to death in the Essonne region south of Paris in the night of Friday to Saturday, police said. She had been missing since leaving school on Friday afternoon and was found just a few hundred meters from her school. A police source, who asked not to be named, said that she had been