TOKYO (Reuters) – A few months before his resignation, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced a substitution policy that could allow the Japanese military to plan movements on basic targets in China and other parts of Asia for the first time.
Japan’s self-defense forces aim to prevent attackers in the air and at sea. Policy substitution would order the army to create a doctrine to attack enemy sites on the ground, a project that would require the acquisition of long-range weapons, such as cruise missiles. .
If implemented in the next government, the policy would mark one of the significant maximum adjustments to Japan’s army position since the end of World War II. This reflects Abe’s long-standing efforts for one more army and Tokyo’s growing fear of Chinese influence in the region. .
The Japanese government is involved in china’s largest army activity around the disputed islets of the East China Sea.
“The main explanation for why our action is China. We haven’t placed too much emphasis on this, but the possible security options we make are due to China,” said Masahisa Sato, a legislator of Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, who was an adjunct defense. Minister and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Interview.
Japan renounced its right to wage war after World War II, which makes the factor of impact targets, which would involve attacks on foreign soil, debatable to its Asian neighbors, especially China.
Abe said last month that he was resigning due to a deterioration in his health. The cupboard’s leading secretary, Yoshihide Suga, who is considered less bellicose than Abe but strongly related to him, is expected to win the race to update him as a match. leader and prime minister.
GOVERNMENT POLICY
Abe to senior defense policy officials in June to provide LDP proposals for the military that included a floor attack or strike doctrine.
The proposal will affect government policy if it is included in a revised national defense strategy, which is likely, according to two sources, adding the Acting Secretary General of the PLD, Tomomi Inada.
“I don’t think there’s much opposition to that in the LDP,” Inada told Reuters. “This direction does not replace even with a new prime minister. “
The army can now use long-range missiles to attack ships, it believes those plans are justified because it will have to be able to destroy the cannons that threaten Japan. Minister of Defense Itsunori Onodera.
Therefore, supporters say, Japanese legislation will not want to change. During his eight years in office, Abe pushed but failed in his purpose to revise the pacifist Article Nine of the postwar constitution.
The Japan National Security Council, headed by Abe and adding key cabinet officials, adding Suga, will meet on Friday to discuss the defense strategy.
U. S. -made BGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles would be an option for ground attack weapons, said Katsutoshi Kawano, who until last year was Japan’s most sensible army officer, the president of the Chief of Staff of Self-Defense.
Tomahawks can score goals 2500 kilometers (1553 miles) away, which would put China and much of the Russian Far East at the top of the goal.
“Japan can have attack capability five years from now,” Kawano said. “However, a whole series of movements that add specific satellites and parts of electronic warfare would be much more expensive and would take more than 10 years to acquire. “
Meanwhile, Japan relies on the United States for intelligence and surveillance.
politics
To move the proposal forward, the next government will want to complete a revised defense strategy and a medium-term procurement plan until the end of December, before the Ministry of Defence submits its annual budget request.
This may encounter resistance from LDP coalition partner Komeito, backed by Buddhists, who fears such a move will disappoint China and threaten Japan’s statutes with the renunciation of war.
“This can cause an arms race and increase tension. This would be technically complicated and would require massive investments,” Komeito chief executive Natsuo Yamaguchi said in an interview. “This is a factor you want to be seriously under the new prime minister. “
Even some of the LDP’s security hawks, along with one of Suga’s main rivals, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, see a prospect for acquiring long-range cruise missiles.
“What if the United States asks Japan to fire them and we don’t need it?” I ask.
(Information via Tim Kelly and Kiyoshi Takenaka, additional information through Yoshifumi Takemoto and Ami Miyazaki; edited through David Dolan and Gerry Doyle)
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