By Axel BerkofskyApr 10, 2003
Spying on North Korea, boosting Japan's military capabilities and attacking Pyongyang preemptively - these should be on Japan's defense policy agenda as far as Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba and other Japanese defense hawks are concerned.
Ishiba, known for chronic difficulties at holding his tongue when elaborating on Japan's defense policy, started his series of verbal blunders when heading a delegation to South Korea at the end of March.
Although Japanese-South Korean efforts to deal with the security situation on the Korean Peninsula were on his agenda, the Defense Agency chief chose to inform his hosts that attacking North Korea preemptively is not "unconstitutional" if Pyongyang were suspected of planning to launch a missile at Japan.
As usual, cautious rhetoric and a cool head are not for Ishiba with evil-doer North Korea on the agenda - regardless that the timing for another gaffe could hardly have been worse.
Japan's defense hawk-in-chief considered attacking North Korea on Fuji television only shortly after he agreed with his South Korean counterpart Cho Young-Kil to resolve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula peacefully.
The "good news" is that Ishiba still plans to let the United States do the dirty work, reportedly limiting Japan's role to logistical support for US military stationed on Japanese soil for now. "We will keep intact the policy of leaving necessary preemptive strikes to the US and there is no change in that policy," he said, confirming that Japan will still be watching from a distance should North Korea be next on the US list of countries to be "liberated".
At least for the time being, it seems.
"At some point, we have to inspect, however, how correct that policy is," he added, indicating that Japan might one day be obliged to move beyond the stage of helpful bystander if North Korea pulls the trigger.
This was not the first time, of course, that Ishiba had suggested launching an attack on North Korea to solve the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. As recently as the end of February, he had the same idea, urging his country's armed forces to be prepared to attack North Korea before Pyongyang's missiles were on their way to downtown Tokyo. But he blamed the foreign media for his verbal blunder, claiming that the translators got it all wrong.
Back in Tokyo from his visit in Seoul, Ishiba switched back to diplomatic mode and announced that Tokyo and Seoul are in "nearly perfect agreement" on how to deal with North Korea and its occasional threats to send rogue missiles over East Asia.
Colleagues traveling with him, however, were less enthusiastic about the level of agreement. "While we stressed the necessity to protect Japan from North Korean missiles with a missile defense system, the South Koreans seemed hardly interested in mentioning the issue at all," complained a member of the Japanese delegation.
Government officials in Tokyo joined in, claiming that South Korea's rhetoric to strengthen efforts to solve the crisis on the Korean dialogue was no more than an attempt to patch up things temporarily.
Ishiba and like-minded members of the defense establishment seem more interested in preparing Japan for an attack anyway and last Friday urged the government to upgrade Japan's current missile defense capabilities.
Since 1999, Japan and the US have conducted joint research to develop the Navy Theater Wide Defense system which, if feasible, will be deployed on high-tech Aegis warship to intercept ballistic missiles. The research, however, could take up to another two years and Japan has yet to make up its mind whether it wants to move on to the development phase.
Time is quickly running out for Japan, warn Defense Agency officials who for their part seem eager to shoot down missiles long before Japan's politicians get around to making up their minds.
After the US "successfully tested" the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system in the war against Iraq, the Japanese military is now urging the government to order the PAC-3 system if Japan wants to shoot down missiles without US help.
The Air Self-Defense Force is already equipped with the missile system's earlier version (PAC-2), which the US used during the first Gulf War to shoot down Saddam Hussein's Scud missiles targeted at Israel. Unlike the PAC-3 system, the older PAC-2 version, however, is not able to shoot down North Korean Nodong missiles.
According to Defense Agency sources, North Korea has already deployed up to 100 of its medium-range Nodong ballistic missiles, which have a range of 1,300 kilometers - capable of hitting any target in Japan.
Japan, therefore, needs the upgrade badly, confirms Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who put the advanced US Patriot surface-to-air missile system, the missiles and software that comes with it on top of the Defense Agency's shopping list for 2004. Spy technology that is "made in Japan", meanwhile, was fired into orbit for the first time on March 28, enabling Tokyo to keep an eye on its neighbor with nuclear ambitions. Although the Defense Agency promises that the second and third generation of Japanese spy satellites will catch up with the US high-tech eyes eventually, the Japanese taxpayer for now ended up paying US$3.77 billion for a pair of satellites that see less than US satellites could during the Cold War.
While Koizumi thinks that the spy satellites and missile defense system will "improve" Japan's negotiating position with North Korea, Pyongyang for its part calls Japan's efforts to beef up its military capabilities a "hostile act".
Japan, however, might get much more "hostile" if it is up to Ishiba.
He grabbed another headline asking the government to equip the country's military with offensive capabilities enabling Japan to conduct a preemptive strike "if necessary". He reportedly requested US state-of-the-art equipment and, according to the Japanese daily newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, thought that buying a couple Tomahawks from the US soon is "worth considering".
While political commentators in Japan are indeed beginning to fear that the Defense Agency chief's rhetoric is taking a prolonged break from common sense, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's secretary general Taku Yamazaki finds it only "politically difficult" to equip the country's armed forces with military offensive capabilities.
The Japanese government has no plans to expand the country's armed forces' mission from defending Japan to attacking its neighbors and sent Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda to set the record straight.
"The government is not at all considering to buy Tomahawks," said Fukuda, who disappointed the defense hawks by claiming that deploying offensive capabilities is a non-starter given Japan's "self-defense-only policy".
It seems Koizumi and his aides remain busy keeping the country's defense establishment in check. More work, however, is yet to be done as long as the hawks send their minds on vacation while ordering their mouths to be working overtime.
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