Japan military assuming more global role

CAMP MAKOMANAI —

Col Kenji Sawai, commander of Japan’s 18th Infantry Regiment, stands in his headquarters dressed from head to foot in white camouflage. Skis clutter the hallways of his outpost in the snow-covered mountains of northern Japan, along with stacks of white ponchos, gloves and boots.

For decades, the mission for Japanese officers such as Sawai has been fairly straightforward: Defend the homeland. Narrowly defined, for Sawai and his infantrymen, that means protecting the island of Hokkaido, where the regiment is based, from invasion.

Now that definition is changing.

The political leadership and military planners—with the blessing of Washington, their closest ally—are cautiously moving the military away from its longtime role as a stay-at-home force. The new stance, while still centered on national defense, allows troops to be sent all over the world for a broad range of operations.

Lawmakers are mulling calls from the United States for Tokyo to send “boots on the ground” to bolster President Barack Obama’s stepped-up efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. The U.S. has said that it would welcome a dispatch of soldiers.

While such a move would set off controversy among the public and is unlikely anytime soon, the government has taken a number of steps that would have been unthinkable a decade ago. It sent 600 troops to Iraq, albeit in a noncombat role; it has a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean that supports U.S. forces in Afghanistan; and it has sent two naval ships to the waters off Somalia to help battle pirates.

The tentative transition is reshaping the balance of power in northeast Asia—one of the world’s most volatile and heavily armed regions—and could be a key to Japan’s security as China’s military rises and North Korea continues to be a nuclear-capable wild card.

Sawai’s remote command, a series of drab beige barracks surrounded by sprawling marching fields, is already seeing the trickle-down effect.

At this year’s “North Wind” exercises, annual maneuvers held with the United States, U.S. commanders said training involved more joint attacks, more collaboration, closer command and control—just the kind of thing that would be needed if the Japanese were to be fighting alongside the U.S. in Iraq or Afghanistan.

“We have never actually been to war, and there are many things that we want to learn from the U.S. soldiers,” Sawai said after addressing his troops and several hundred U.S. National Guard soldiers who came to his base from Kentucky for the 11-day maneuvers.

It was a striking contrast: Many of the American guardsmen have been sent to war zones two or three times, while no Japanese soldier has fired a bullet in combat since Tokyo’s 1945 surrender ended World War II—thanks largely to a pacifist constitution written by U.S. occupiers to keep Japan from rearming.

Sawai stressed that the exercises were not directly intended to ready the Japanese for deployment overseas.

“Defense is our mission,” Sawai said. “That has not changed.”

Still, the new, more aggressive, role of Japan’s military is hard to ignore.

Japan has about 240,000 uniformed troops, with about 130,000 of them in the army, which is formally known as the Ground Self-Defense Forces. Because of sensitivities left over from the last century, the military itself is known as the Self-Defense Force.

Constitutional restrictions have barred the military from acquiring an aircraft carrier or some air-to-air refueling capabilities needed for long-range strikes, which are crucial for the projection of force but are considered too aggressive to meet the constitutional defense-only rules. Unlike China’s double-digit defense spending growth, Japan’s has remained flat for years. China has for years outspent Japan—$70 billion to $49 billion in 2009.

Even so, Japan has one of the best-funded and highly regarded militaries in the world. Its navy, in particular, is regarded as the best operating in the region, after only the U.S. Navy.

Earlier this month, after much haggling in parliament, two Japanese naval destroyers were dispatched to the sea off Somalia to join the multinational fight against piracy. Two more destroyers were sent to the Sea of Japan to monitor North Korean missile activity. And late last year, Japanese troops ended a four-year humanitarian and airlift mission in Iraq, the military’s biggest overseas operation since World War II.

On the home front, Japan has worked closely with the United States to erect a multibillion dollar ballistic missile shield to protect the country—and the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed here—from a potential attack by its unpredictable and often belligerent neighbor, North Korea.

Elements of that shield could soon be tested if North Korea, as expected, test launches its first long-range ballistic missile since a failed attempt in 2006. North Korea claims the launch is intended to put a satellite into orbit, but Japanese officials have said they are prepared to respond if the missile’s trajectory poses a threat to Japan’s territory.

Sending troops to Afghanistan or elsewhere would likely stir up opposition from many Japanese who recall the disaster of the previous century’s militarist misadventures and strongly resist any action that might lead Japan again into war.

“I would anticipate the SDF (Japanese Self-Defense Force) taking a significantly larger role on the international stage in the years to come. There are any number of international and domestic factors that all point in the same direction on this point,” said Eric Heginbotham, a political scientist with the U.S.-based RAND Corporation.

But raising the question of Japan sending troops to Afghanistan, he added: “I would say it is unlikely, unless the situation there stabilizes or the SDF can identify a safe corner of the country in which to operate. Japan is still extremely casualty sensitive.”

Japan’s neighbors are also wary of such moves.

But political opposition at home is eroding. Japan’s two biggest parties both advocate the country taking a higher-profile role on the world stage, largely for nationalistic reasons. And the new mood dovetails with pressure from the United States, which would welcomes a stronger Japan that could assist thinly spread U.S. forces and serve as a counterbalance to the growing military strength of China.

“Gradually, Japan is moving toward that direction,” said Tsuneo Watanabe, a senior fellow at the Tokyo Foundation.

“There is vague consensus among the policy circle. However, there is no consensus among ordinary citizens and politicians,” he said. “The bridging role should be played by politicians, the policy research community and media.”

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Latest 15 of 20 Total Comments Show All

apecNetworks at 06:43 PM JST - 29th March

Article 9 is helping Japan show the international community that the DPRK is clearly in the wrong in this incident, while Japan is working w/in the constraints of Article 9. The past has shown that the DPRK does not hold the opinion of the world community as important, but Japan does care. This is an important point being made on the internet.
Papawhale at 09:04 PM JST - 29th March

More militarism exported. Wonderful, Japan.
hakujinsensei at 09:28 PM JST - 29th March

nothing kicks the economy into gear like a military campaign ; )

unless it is the exporting of military technology and goods which is the real reason for the push to amend article 9.

money, pure and simple. it is japans last grasp at maintaining its economic might.

japans ruin was in mimicking european and american colonialism.

they continue down the same foolhardy path mimicking americas economy.

the only problem is they have not enough food nor raw materials to survive on their own for more than a couple weeks, and as soon as the neighboring countries that japan is raping for raw materials and cheap labor advance enough to prosper without being japan's step child, japan will dry up n blow away as so much fodder for the chinese that will absorb them without a shot.

japans future is in being the information center (glorified OL) and play ground ( soap ) for china.

go japan.
gogogo at 10:43 PM JST - 29th March

Military? Japan doesn't have a military only SDF... who wrote this?
OssanAmerica at 11:48 PM JST - 29th March

Marion, You can verify what I say by googling for news and editorials all over the internet. China considers the United States to be their strategic adversary. They have been training with the US as the designated enemy since 2000. We spy on them, they spy on us. Nothing bothers them more than the presence of our 7th Fleet in Japan. So please stop with your silly 1930-40s frozen in time rants about Japanese military fascism, it's been over for 64 years. We, the United States literally forced Japan to create the SDF in the face of the Korean War (where your beloved communist Chinese shot and killed American troops) and we have been mainitaining a policy of encouraging Japan to play a greater role in security matters ever since. The greatest stumbling block to our goal has been and continues to be Article 9 of their constitution, and we would like nothing better for it to be changed and "collective defense" be recognized and implemented. So please, join the rest of us in the 21st century.
OssanAmerica at 12:36 AM JST - 30th March

limitations imposed on the SDF by Article 9 of Japan's Constitution, >which was so magnanimously bestowed on Japan after WWII by the >victorious U.S. and its allies.

Article 9 was "bestowed" on Japan by the United States, not the other allies. They wanted Emperor Hirohito prosecuted as a War Criminal. We, the United States needed him to remain on the thrown, albeit without the kind of powers he had prior to and during WWII, to hold Japan together in the immediate post war years to avoid any kind of civil unrest that could concievably open the door for Soviet intervention. Hence, the United States was able to satisfy the other allies with Article 9. That said, we have been regreting it since 5 years after WWII ended and that is a situation that continues to this day and underlines the entire above article.
SirMohawk at 01:32 AM JST - 30th March

Does anyone really think the Japan of today will revert to 1930-40s Japanese military fascism. Todays citizens of Japan are not the same as the past.
mushroomcloud at 04:29 AM JST - 30th March

At this point, does it really matter much for Japan to assume a more global military role? Who cares?

It's not like the Japanese have the capabilities of times past to invade any of their neighbors anymore, and even if they did they would be faced with a well armed South Korea, and nuclear armed North Korea, and a super nuclear armed China.

Times have changed so much. Japan, chained to the United States, will forever have her military options limited to whatever her master wants and requires. And her neighbors have certainly done what they can to arm themselves to the teeth in order to enact their national ambitions, whatever they may be.
OssanAmerica at 04:55 AM JST - 30th March

There are only three countries left today that arguably could and do "invade" other countries for various reasons ranging from liberation to keeping from separating...The United States, Russia and China. All other countries, and this undeniably includes Japan, are lesser powers who aren't interested or don't have enough to gain by stick their necks out too far.
TokyoHustla at 05:37 AM JST - 30th March

A "more global" is not quite the right way to put it. The US has promised Japan Asia, but not Russia or India. Japan will be allowed to take China, southeast Asia and Mongolia, and use those resources to help our alliance. Of course, the US will then have the leverage necessary against Russia and will be able to once again exploit Africa for resources without Chinese meddling. The New World Order is taking shape and will be solidified with the destruction of the DPRK and the internal strife to follow in the PRC. Iran will be cornered and unable to countermand Israeli offensives, and the US/Israel alliance will turn the middle east into a single state, entirely emasculated and subservient to its consumerist overlords.

Global politics is heading towards this path, and the DPRK is only helping it come faster. If ROK is lost in the process, so be it. We can accept some level of collateral damage now that key industry has been moved to Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. ROK has made itself irrelevant through the long process of reunification.
grafton at 06:37 AM JST - 30th March

TokyoHustla at 05:37 AM JST - 30th March

That is the most comic book depiction of the worlds future I have seen in a long time. If I really believed you believed what you have written I would say what I think & then get deleted again. On the one hand we have your future fantasy & on the other hand we have the Marion’s 70 year old fantasy of Japan, neither one does either of you much credit as rational thinkers.

Japan may well have a symbiotic relationship with the US, but it has never been the puppet that the UK has been. Clause 9 may have been forced on to a defeated Japan in 1945 & at that time resented, but with time Japan has seen its usefulness, they have been able to avoid pressure from the US to deploy troops where the US needed them. Unlike some other countries no Japanese soldiers have been killed as surrogate US soldiers.

Clause 9 will eventually go, but it will go when it is in Japans interest for it to go. This opens the door to guess work by the over the top anti Japanese, some see Japan becoming militarist again, while others say they are now too weak as a people to know how to be soldiers. I think Japan have a lot more intelligence & backbone than they are being given credit for. I also think that they have learned to stay out of wars, especially other peoples wars. As for those that believe China will one day walk over Japan, think again. They may have bought &/or built all the weapons they need but they will never have the people, these are the people that make the craxxx that is on sale in the 100 yen shops & that really is who they are. The largest cost cutting back stabbing country in the world, China faced against a unified Japan? China will not risk it, such another total loss of face, no way.
TokyoHustla at 06:04 PM JST - 30th March

grafton, Aside from a few minor points, I think we pretty much see eye to eye here.
OssanAmerica at 09:41 PM JST - 30th March

Grafton describes reality. Tokhustla dscribes an alternate reality fantasy.
TokyoHustla at 12:21 AM JST - 31st March

Ossan, we're describing the same thing. There's a minor difference on the role of 100 yen shops in all this, but otherwise we're in agreement.
TheMarion at 07:11 PM JST - 1st April

Article 9 of the Japanese "PEACE" Constitution has kept the Japanese people free of any entanglements for the past 60 plus years. The USA Marines were fighting the Japanese Military in China back in 1934 and have been allies of the Chinse right up till the present day. Frankly speaking I acnnot tell the truth about some of you "war mongers"because I would be deletedby the JT Monitor who has already deleted me at least two dozen times. I write from experience while some of you blog to make yourself feel BIG.