AJW by Asahi Shimbun : 29 March 2016
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s boasts of Japan’s beefed-up defense capabilities under new national security legislation have done little to prevent China and North Korea from flexing their military muscles in East Asia. Regional tensions, in fact, have been intensifying up to March 29, when Japan’s new security laws took effect. Chinese military activities around disputed territories in the East China Sea and South China Sea continue unabated, while North Korea has thumbed its nose at the world by conducting nuclear tests and missile launches.
The national security laws expand the activities of the Self-Defense Forces overseas, even in situations when Japan is not under direct attack. The laws call for the SDF to provide greater support to the militaries of the United States and other nations anywhere in the world. The passage of the security bills last September has already heightened cooperation between the SDF and U.S. military through the Alliance Coordination Mechanism based on the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation approved in April 2015.
Under the revised guidelines, the two countries worked closely together in responding to the nuclear tests and missile launches by North Korea that started in January. Abe spoke about that cooperation on March 29 at a session of the Upper House Budget Committee. “When North Korea launched its ballistic missiles, there was greater cooperation because of the increased sharing of information between Japan and the United States,” Abe said. “The passage of the legislation has strengthened alliance ties.”
However, the Japan-U.S. cooperation has had almost no effect on China.
According to Defense Ministry officials, Air SDF fighter jets were scrambled 373 times between April and December 2015 to respond to Chinese aircraft, more than double the number in the same period in 2012, when the government bought some of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea from its private-sector owner.
The figure for 2015 also exceeds the numbers for that period over the past five years.
Moreover, there are no signs of a decrease in Chinese government ships passing through territorial waters around the Senkakus, according to the Japan Coast Guard. There were 35 instances of such intrusions in 2015, slightly more than the 32 in the previous year. But in 2015, about three such cases every month involved repeated passage through Japanese territorial waters.
In response to Diet questioning on March 8 at the Lower House Security Committee, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said, “An improvement in deterrence will not necessarily be reflected in the number of intrusions into territorial waters or the number of scrambles by SDF jets.” Ikuo Gonoi, associate professor of international political science at Takachiho University, said the larger number of provocative acts taken by China from around the time the national security bills were passed shows the legislation has not had a deterrent effect on China.
Still, Japan and China continue to deepen their economic ties. China is Japan’s leading trading partner, while Japan is China’s second largest trading partner. With that as background, Gonoi said, “Reconstructing a good relationship through diplomatic efforts will produce better results for both nations in terms of national security (as well as economy).”
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201603290070
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s boasts of Japan’s beefed-up defense capabilities under new national security legislation have done little to prevent China and North Korea from flexing their military muscles in East Asia. Regional tensions, in fact, have been intensifying up to March 29, when Japan’s new security laws took effect. Chinese military activities around disputed territories in the East China Sea and South China Sea continue unabated, while North Korea has thumbed its nose at the world by conducting nuclear tests and missile launches.
The national security laws expand the activities of the Self-Defense Forces overseas, even in situations when Japan is not under direct attack. The laws call for the SDF to provide greater support to the militaries of the United States and other nations anywhere in the world. The passage of the security bills last September has already heightened cooperation between the SDF and U.S. military through the Alliance Coordination Mechanism based on the new Guidelines for Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation approved in April 2015.
Under the revised guidelines, the two countries worked closely together in responding to the nuclear tests and missile launches by North Korea that started in January. Abe spoke about that cooperation on March 29 at a session of the Upper House Budget Committee. “When North Korea launched its ballistic missiles, there was greater cooperation because of the increased sharing of information between Japan and the United States,” Abe said. “The passage of the legislation has strengthened alliance ties.”
However, the Japan-U.S. cooperation has had almost no effect on China.
According to Defense Ministry officials, Air SDF fighter jets were scrambled 373 times between April and December 2015 to respond to Chinese aircraft, more than double the number in the same period in 2012, when the government bought some of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea from its private-sector owner.
The figure for 2015 also exceeds the numbers for that period over the past five years.
Moreover, there are no signs of a decrease in Chinese government ships passing through territorial waters around the Senkakus, according to the Japan Coast Guard. There were 35 instances of such intrusions in 2015, slightly more than the 32 in the previous year. But in 2015, about three such cases every month involved repeated passage through Japanese territorial waters.
In response to Diet questioning on March 8 at the Lower House Security Committee, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said, “An improvement in deterrence will not necessarily be reflected in the number of intrusions into territorial waters or the number of scrambles by SDF jets.” Ikuo Gonoi, associate professor of international political science at Takachiho University, said the larger number of provocative acts taken by China from around the time the national security bills were passed shows the legislation has not had a deterrent effect on China.
Still, Japan and China continue to deepen their economic ties. China is Japan’s leading trading partner, while Japan is China’s second largest trading partner. With that as background, Gonoi said, “Reconstructing a good relationship through diplomatic efforts will produce better results for both nations in terms of national security (as well as economy).”
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/politics/AJ201603290070
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