Japan Turns to Defense
FOLAND, FRANCES M.
REEXAMINING THE SECURITY PACT Japan Turns to Defense BY FRANCES M. FOLAN Tokyo Out of the political Pandora's box opened by President Nixon's China trip has come an acceleration of Japan's drive...
...Tokyo signed but has not yet ratified the nuclear nonproliferation treaty...
...Would a Japanese or an American general take command in an emergency...
...On the theory that the USSR poses the greatest menace, one-third of the Self-Defense Force's troops are concentrated on the northern island of Hokkaido...
...the illusion of bipolarity...
...Consequently, the Japan-U.S...
...4. The Nixon "shocks," beginning with the announcement last July 15 of the U.S...
...as a producer of atomic energy by the end of the decade...
...As a result, the director of the Japan Defense Agency complains, his nation is "technically 10 years behind in military aviation...
...In any event, the "buy Japanese" policy now being adopted should quickly close the gap...
...Many argue that Japan faces a smaller threat of fire today than before the Sino-American rapprochement...
...2. Japan's phenomenal economic growth, elevating it to third place among the world's industrialized nations, has made Tokyo uncomfortable with its U.S...
...Washington, of course, is interested not only in Japan's strategic posture but in where it will spend its growing defense budget...
...The rate of its nuclear development being the fastest in the world today, it could rank second only to the U.S...
...ended its postwar donations of arms and equipment, Japan entered the phase of production under license...
...Japan is currently constructing a fast breeder reactor, enriching uranium, conducting research on nuclear fission, and building an atomic-powered merchant fleet...
...The latest defense budget allots almost $40 million for the flying radar system, two or three times the cost of importing it, but Japanese planners say the higher expense will be offset by the boost it will give to domestic industry and the money that will be saved on replacement parts produced at home...
...The Japan-U.S...
...military umbrella...
...In the fiscal year beginning here this month Tokyo will spend $2.6 billion on its Self-Defense Force, a 20 per cent increase over 1971 and its largest allocation since World War II...
...that "Japan may slip out from behind the American nuclear shield and become a nuclear power in [its] own right...
...A comprehensive report released last January by the Aerospace Industries Association in Washington forecast that Japan would emphasize research in atomic energy, space exploration and marine science...
...Although the conservative leadership of the dominant Liberal-Democratic party favored a faster build-up, elements within Japanese society that still feel a deep revulsion against militarization prevailed...
...Security Treaty, despite its unpopularity with students and Leftists, lent strong support to the antirearmament faction...
...its population and industry, being concentrated in one small area, could not survive a nuclear first-strike...
...Afraid of being caught in nonnuclear isolation, the government has asked the U.S...
...Accordingly, the current leadership predicated its entire foreign policy on full cooperation with the U.S...
...Because of the extreme sensitivity of most Japanese toward the idea of developing nuclear power, all activities in this field are carefully described as being "for peaceful purposes...
...Yet for Japan, perhaps more than any other nation, both logic and sentiment rule out war as a feasible course: It is absolutely dependent upon foreign suppliers for all its vital raw materials...
...and European aerospace industries by developing its own airborne early warning system and contracting for 206 locally made supersonic jet trainers instead of purchasing them abroad...
...REEXAMINING THE SECURITY PACT Japan Turns to Defense BY FRANCES M. FOLAN Tokyo Out of the political Pandora's box opened by President Nixon's China trip has come an acceleration of Japan's drive toward remilitarization...
...With the demise of the cold war and the advent of the new multi-polarity, hawks are hard pressed to name the enemies who endanger Japan's interests...
...The current recession, too, calls for pump-priming remedies to sustain the tremendous thrust of the economy...
...Yet the Sino-Soviet split and Russia's desire to improve relations with Japan, as evidenced by Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko's January visit, have relieved tensions even on that front...
...Last year Tokyo decided to break away from its dependence on the U.S...
...technology, its scientific resources, and its tradition of downplaying its own capability, the lag is probably less...
...Until now, the nation's program of gradual rearmament has been carefully geared to preserving its purely defensive image...
...In addition, officials wanted to avoid any controversy that could aggravate the lingering apprehensions of other countries and thus isolate Japan in the world community...
...The specter of a remilitarized?let alone nuclearized ?Japan stirs strong emotional reactions among those who remember the country's role in World War II...
...Fearful of a power vacuum in the Western Pacific, Washington has been encouraging Tokyo to assume a more dynamic role as the American presence is reduced...
...to persuade France and China to offer their signatures first...
...At San Clemente last January, President Nixon admitted to Premier Eisaku Sato that he was not confident they would agree...
...What kind of situation requires 'prior consultation' between the two parties...
...But given Japan's access to U.S...
...Trusting in the alliance, steadfast for a quarter of a century, Japanese doves argued that the government could concentrate on peaceful pursuits...
...3. The long-negotiated reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, scheduled for May 15, will add a distant island to the nation's defense perimeter...
...Moreover, the country's soaring GNP favors an expanded national budget, allowing increased military expenditures...
...Suddenly reminded that geopolitics reigns eternal in international relations, the Japanese redefined their country's role as one of "forced independence...
...Severely criticized by its scientists for not contributing enough to basic research, the government is also allocating over $500 million of the new defense budget????or three and a half times more than previously????to research and development...
...dependency, like a grown man in knee pants...
...And who decides whether or not a given situation constitutes an emergency for Japan...
...By 1969, purchase of foreign know-how reached the level of almost $400 million...
...After the U.S...
...It should not take many years for Japan to become competitive with foreign arms makers, and its businessmen are already urging a relaxation of the ban against exporting Japanese weaponry...
...Security Treaty has come under increasing criticism the last few months and its ambiguities, formerly ignored, are now being questioned: "What is Japan's share of defense under the pact...
...Already established as an economic giant, Japan will soon become the world's sixth or seventh strongest military power as well...
...Meanwhile, Washington columnist Jack Anderson has revealed the very considerable concern at top diplomatic levels in the U.S...
...Since only 13 per cent of the parts and accessories were available in Japan, the remainder had to be bought from the U.S...
...Some 2,400 troops will be required merely to take over on-site military operations as the American occupants pull out, and air and sea forces must also be extended to cover the redeemed territory...
...In recent years, however, four major developments have converged to change Japan's international position: 1. The Nixon doctrine, promulgated at Guam in early 1970, indicated the eventual folding of the U.S...
...President's plan to visit Peking????made without consulting Japan's leaders????Shattered Frances M. Folano, a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs, is traveling in the Far East...
...Some analysts predict that Japan will climb to third place among nations in research and development expenditures by the late '70s...
...After all, it is economically in the same league with the nuclear powers and, across a narrow sea, China stages periodic atomic tests...
...As one Japanese Army officer puts it, "The treaty says the Americans are to come to our rescue, but we cannot????and do not?count on it any more than you can count on your neighbor to come and fight a fire in your house...
...and, as the only country that has already suffered the horrors of the atomic bomb, its populace has a special aversion to bellicose policies and actions...
...Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, for example, gave Lockheed Aircraft $1.5 million as down payment for the F-104 fighter design, plus $30-35 thousand per plane manufactured...
Vol. 55 • April 1972 • No. 7
