Okinawans demand removal of US base

Photo: Protesters wear straw hats with the slogan “Oppose US military reorganization” at a rally against a US military base in Ginowan, Okinawa, yesterday.

Monday, Nov 09, 2009, Page 1
AP AND REUTERS, TOKYO AND GINOWAN, JAPAN

Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa yesterday to demand that a US Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said yesterday that no deal on relocating US troops can be expected during Obama’s visit this week, saying the issue needs more time to resolve.

Okada said on TV Asahi that “an agreement between the heads of state holds heavy meaning,” but cannot be expected to be completed during Obama’s visit.

The row over the re-siting of the Futenma Air Base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan and sour defense ties between the two countries.

It could also prove a domestic headache for Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose support ratings have slipped since his landslide election victory in August.

“Okinawa’s future is for us, the Okinawan people to decide,” Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha told a supportive crowd, which spilled out of an open-air theater by the beach. “We cannot let America decide for us.”

Organizers put the number of protesters at 21,000. Police estimated the crowd at 6,000.

Under a 2006 US-Japan agreement, the Futenma Marine base in the center of Ginowan is set to be closed and replaced by a facility built partly on reclaimed land at Henoko, a less populated part of the island, by 2014.

The deal, which Washington wants to push through after years of what a military official called “painful” negotiations, is part of a wider plan to re-organize US troops and reduce the burden on Okinawa by moving up to 8,000 Marines to Guam.

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has urged Japan to approve the plan ahead of Obama’s visit, which is scheduled to start on Friday.

Hatoyama, who vowed to build a more equal relationship with the US, said in the run-up to his August election victory the base that should be moved off the island.

That view was supported by 70 percent of Okinawa residents in a poll published this month by the Mainichi Shimbun.

Okinawa, controlled by the US until 1972, makes up only 0.6 percent of Japan’s land mass, but hosts about half the US troops in Japan. Those who live near the bases complain of noise, crime, pollution and accidents.

Gushi also sees the row as potentially undermining Japan’s US-dependent security policy, leaving the country vulnerable.

Kurt Campbell Nomination

Obama nominee is consummate Asia insider By FOSTER KLUG, AP
2009-04-25 08:02 AM » » »CST: 10:02:00 a.m. Saturday April 25, 2009
http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=930208&lang=eng_news

Kurt Campbell nominated for vice secretary of state By William Lowther
Saturday, Apr 25, 2009, Page 1 » » »CST: 03:00:00 a.m. Saturday April 25, 2009
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/04/25/2003442000

Old Asia hand nominated for US East Asia portfolio
AP 2009-04-23 23:58:03 » » »CST: 01:58:00 p.m. Friday April 24, 2009
http://www.pr-inside.com/old-asia-hand-nominated-for-us-r1205627.htm

Kurt Campbell nominated to head U.S. State Dept.'s E. Asia, Pacific team Kyodo
Apr 23 08:36 PM US/Eastern » » »CST: 10:36:00 a.m. Friday April 24, 2009
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D97OHF202&show_article=1

Obama nominates Campbell for Asia post AFP
09:01 AEST Fri Apr 24 2009 » » »CST: 09:01:00 a.m. Friday April 24, 2009
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/805636/obama-nominates-campbell-for-asia-post
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gtZ4uQ3D8U72AZWISWAEk5lLGFdg

CIA Superstar on His Way Into Obama Administration; CNAS Occupation Continues
By Spencer Ackerman 4/23/09 5:05 PM » » »CST: 07:05:00 a.m. Friday April 24, 2009
http://washingtonindependent.com/40275/cia-superstar-on-his-way-into-obama-administration-cnas-occupation-continues

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts
(Editor's Note: This statement was provided by the White House on April 23, 2009.)
07:00:00 a.m. Friday April 24, 2009
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/04/president_obama_announces_more_key_administration_7.php

Obama’s Pentagon-in-Waiting, Center for a New American Security Widely Viewed as Source of People and Ideas
By Spencer Ackerman 11/10/08 3:07 PM » » »CST: 06:07:00 a.m. Tuesday November 11, 2008
http://washingtonindependent.com/17710/obama

MOFA reiterates claim over Diaoyutai isles

By Jenny W. hsu
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Feb 28, 2009, Page 3

SOVEREIGNTY: The US recently concurred that the disputed island chain fell under the auspices of a Japan-US security treaty, saying it supported a peaceful solution

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday reiterated Taiwan’s claim of sovereignty over the Diaoyutai island chain.

The MOFA statement came two days after Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said during a trip to the US that the island chain was included in a Japan-US security treaty.

The US concurred with Japan, saying that because the archipelago was part of the territories administered by the Japanese government, “the treaty does apply” to the Diaoyutais.

Known as Senkaku in Japanese, the archipelago in the East China Sea has been a bone of contention between China, Japan and Taiwan, who all assert territorial claim over the islands.

On Wednesday, Aso said the Diaoyutai islands were part of Japan’s territory and fell under the protection of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security signed by Japan and the US in 1960.

“The government will not waiver from the stance that the Diaotyutais are part of Republic of China [ROC] territory. The ROC has rightful claim over the [the island chain],” MOFA Deputy Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said when asked by the press about the issue.

Taiwan’s response came one day after the Chinese Foreign Ministry lodged a vehement protest against Aso’s assertion.

Claims over the island chain have been a constant source of friction between Taiwan and Japan. Last June, a Taiwanese fishing boat was sunk by a Japanese coast guard patrol ship while operating within the disputed region.

The Japanese later apologized for the incident and agreed to pay compensation.

Meanwhile, Hsia said that the 16th round of fisheries talks between Japan and Taiwan currently being held in Taipei would not be affected by the controversy.

“We fully understand both sides hold different views on the Diaoyutai issue. But we also hope that both sides can shelve those differences for now and strive to resolve the fishing rights issue,” he said.

In a telephone interview with the Taipei Times, American Institute in Taiwan press officer Lawrence Walker said: “The US’ position on the issue is longstanding and has not changed.

“The US does not take a position on the ultimate sovereignty of these islands. We expect the claimants to resolve the issue through peaceful means among themselves,” he said.

Walker said that the islands have been under Japanese administrative control since the reversion of Okinawa in 1972. Therefore, Article 5 of the 1960 treaty, which states that it applies to the territories under the administration of Japan, “does apply” to the islands.

Meanwhile, MOFA last night said Japan and Taiwan agreed to resolve the dispute through peaceful means at the conclusion of the 16th round of fishery talks held in Taipei yesterday.

Both sides also agreed to set up a reporting mechanism to respond to emergency disputes and boost communication between the fishery industries in both countries.

US’ Keating argues for exchanges with China

By Richard Halloran

Sunday, Feb 22, 2009, Page 8

The commander of US forces in Asia, Admiral Timothy Keating, speaking in Hong Kong this week, said he had reason to believe that Beijing was ready to revive discussions of military exchanges with the US.

Pressed by news correspondents gathered at the US consulate to explain why he thought so, Keating was reluctant to provide details, but said “we are not living in a void.”

He said there had been “indirect but unmistakable forms of communication” through third parties, including visitors to his headquarters in Hawaii, indicating that the Chinese were open to negotiation.

Backed symbolically by the US aircraft carrier John Stennis anchored for a port visit, Keating also met informally with senior officers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in garrison in Hong Kong.

The admiral said an initiative was under way to forge an agreement intended to prevent hostile incidents between the US and Chinese warships at sea. The US and the Soviet Union had an agreement during the Cold War that each navy would not train its guns on the other’s warships or fly fighters over each other’s ships. Keating said the new effort was in its earliest stages.

Sino-US military exchanges, which expanded in fits and starts for more than a decade, were abruptly broken off by the Chinese in October after the US announced that it would sell US$6.5 billion in arms to Taiwan. US policy under the Taiwan Relations Act is to provide Taiwan with arms to defend itself.

The impasse appeared to have been broken when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on the eve of her trip to Asia that the US and China “will resume mid-level military-to-military discussions later this month.”

Clinton’s disclosure caused mild surprise in the Pentagon and at the Pacific Command in Hawaii, where defense officials wondered why such an announcement had not come from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates or Keating, who is responsible for military exchanges with the Chinese. One official shrugged it off as a “rookie mistake” from an administration still getting its feet on the ground.

Keating argued vigorously for a resumption of military dialogue with China, asserting that it would be “very much in our mutual benefit” and would lessen the chances of a confrontation degenerating into a crisis or even into armed conflict.

On a trip through Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, Keating recalled that a Chinese officer had once suggested that the US and China divide the Pacific Ocean, with China responsible for keeping the peace west of Hawaii while the US was confined to the waters east of Hawaii. Keating said “no thanks.”

Instead, the admiral said, the US and China “should work more together.”

He said three Chinese warships had been patrolling in the Gulf of Aden against pirates. Chinese ship captains often communicated with the commander of a US naval task force in that region, he said.

On the other hand, Keating said, the US and China had a “hotline” for communication and he had used it when the US delivered relief supplies to China after a devastating earthquake.

But, he said, “I don’t have a phone number yet” to call a Chinese officer directly.

Responding to fresh reports that China sought to build four aircraft carriers over the next quarter century, Keating was skeptical.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” said the naval aviator with 5,000 hours of flight time and 1,200 landings aboard aircraft carriers. “Operating an aircraft carrier is a very demanding discipline.”

“It will take them a long time,” he said, “and it will be harder than they think.”

Japanese ministers rally to support under-fire PM Aso

AP, TOKYO
Saturday, Feb 21, 2009, Page 5

Key members of Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Cabinet rallied around their unpopular leader yesterday, brushing off calls from the opposition that he step down and saying Japan must put politics aside and unite behind stimulus measures to bolster its teetering economy.

Aso has been battered by low public support ratings, a dogged opposition that has called him incompetent and the resignation this week of his finance minister amid allegations he was intoxicated at a news conference following last week’s G7 summit in Rome.

The prime minister’s troubles have fueled demands he resign and hold elections for the lower house of parliament to prove his long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party still has the mandate of the voters. Recent polls indicate that if such elections were held now, Aso’s party would suffer major losses.

In an attempt to quell the criticism, several of Aso’s top Cabinet members expressed their support for him yesterday and said political squabbling should not be allowed to derail important bills aimed at reviving Japan’s stagnating economy.

“These are difficult times,” Reform Minister Akira Amari said. “But we should unite to see our stimulus measures enacted.”

“This is no time to be talking about dissolving parliament,” Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said.

Calls by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan for elections have dogged Aso since shortly after he took office in September.

Elections for the lower house do not need to be held until October, but can be called at any time.

Aso, who is to visit Washington next week to meet US President Barack Obama, has said that he wants to focus on policy — and stay in office — until budget-related bills are passed. That is expected in late April.

Although the Democrats have increasing public support for their demands that Aso step aside, they do not have the numbers in parliament to force him out.

Despite the comments yesterday by his senior Cabinet ministers, Aso’s support within his own party appears to be eroding.

In the most serious blow, popular former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi sternly criticized Aso last week and threatened not to support his stimulus plans.

Koizumi’s open dissent sent a shockwave through the party and added to fears among many of its lawmakers that unless Aso resigns or somehow improves his approval ratings, it will hurt them when elections are eventually held.

The state of the economy is also rapidly worsening.

This week, Japan announced its economy shrank at the fastest rate in 35 years in the fourth quarter of last year. It has now contracted for three straight quarters and is almost certainly headed for a fourth. To revive growth, a contentious ￥4.8 trillion (US$52.2 billion) extra budget was proposed that includes a cash payout of ￥12,000 (US$133) to each taxpayer.

Aso has backed the idea, saying it would stimulate sagging consumer spending, but it has been widely criticized as ineffective.

The cash handout and other stimulus measures are still being debated.

“If elections were held now, the ruling party would fail miserably,” said Jiro Yamaguchi, a politics professor at Hokkaido University. “But it doesn’t matter who their leader is — they are falling apart.”

Keating pleased with progress in China relations

CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: Admiral Timothy Keating said the US was happy with the progress being made by both Taiwan and China on the cross-strait relationship

By William Lowther
STAFF REPORTER IN WASHINGTON
Saturday, Dec 20, 2008, Page 1

Admiral Timothy Keating, head of the US Pacific Command, said on Thursday in Washington that while he continued to closely monitor the Chinese military, he believed that tensions in the Taiwan Strait had been reduced over the last two months.

He said that while there had been some changes in China's military posture toward Taiwan, those changes were not significant.

Photo: Keating said the U.S. Pacific Command 18, 2007, at a news conference in Washington, China has built aircraft carrier to be considered seriously said. "The understanding of China's intentions to seek greater transparency," he said

"We are pleased with the progress being made by China and Taiwan in reducing the tension across the Strait," Keating said.

He added that, while there had been no great strategic shift, there had been a series of meaningful small developments, including China sending pandas to Taiwan, increased capability to send mail across the Strait and improved transportation links.

The admiral particularly stressed sociological changes where young men and women on both sides "are falling in love with one another and it's increasingly easy to do so."

"All of these recommend to us a decrease in tension across the strait and we are gratified by that decrease … That said, we still pay close attention to the Strait, as we do many other regions in our area," Keating said.

Keating, probably the most important individual in the US military dealing on a daily basis with Taiwan's security, stressed that the centerpiece of his policy in the region was "partnership, presence and military readiness."

In a statement that may have been designed to reassure Taiwan, he said: "We want everybody in our area of responsibility to know that we're committed to security, stability and prosperity. We are going to remain present and engaged throughout the area ... We want to emphasize to our friends and allies that we will be there in the years ahead, as we have been there for decades in the past. We want them to be confident and comfortable in our ability to respond across the entire spectrum of operations."

When asked by Nadia Tsao of the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper) about reports that China was building an aircraft carrier, Keating refused to confirm the development outright, but appeared to do so with a wink and a nod.

"If the Chinese choose to pursue aircraft carrier technology, we will monitor very carefully that development ... We would ask that they be increasingly transparent with us so we can understand their intentions," Keating said.

The admiral said that he had told Chinese military leaders that the development of aircraft carriers could be seen by some as a threat.

"I don't regard it as a threat today ... We are going to watch very carefully to make sure that it doesn't become a threat," he said.

But building a carrier was complex, demanding, dangerous and very expensive, Keating said.

"When I proposed to the Chinese an increased statement of intention, they came back and said: 'Well, we only want to protect those things that are ours' — which seems fair enough," he said. "But so do we, so too do all of the countries who have access to the maritime domain."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2008/12/20/2003431562

US urges Tokyo to stay on side

AP, TOKYO
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007, Page 5

INDIAN OCEAN ROLE: Ambassador Thomas Schieffer said the Japanese would have to decide whether they want to be part of the global war on terrorism or not

The US ambassador urged Japan yesterday to extend its naval mission in the Indian Ocean, saying it would be "a real tragedy" if Tokyo dropped out of the battle against terrorism.

Japan has refueled US-led warships in the Indian Ocean since 2001, but withdrew the mission last month when the opposition -- which controls the upper house of parliament -- blocked its extension.

Ambassador Thomas Schieffer said Japan would have to decide whether it wants to be part of the international effort to combat terrorism or not.

"It would be a real tragedy if somehow Japan tried to opt out of the war on terror," he told reporters at his Tokyo residence. "It's just an issue that requires a unified international community to make any headway against."

Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last week extended the current session of the Diet in an effort to push through the legislation, which would renew the mission but limit Japan to refueling ships on anti-terrorism patrols.

Under that version of the bill, Japan could not support ships directly related to the US-led forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Schieffer said the legislative battle would be a test of whether the government would be able to function with the opposition in control of one house of parliament. The LDP controls the more powerful lower house.

The measure "will be a good indication if whether the government is able to act when it wants to, or if political gridlock is the result," Schieffer said.

He has been a vocal advocate of the bill, meeting with opposition lawmakers and others to argue for its passage.

The Afghan mission was part of Japan's response in support of the US following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Japan dispatched a humanitarian ground unit to southern Iraq in 2004 for two years and still has a logistical unit in Kuwait.

The US bases 50,000 troops in Japan under a security treaty, and Schieffer said he had hoped the strength of the US-Japan alliance would be beyond politics.

"It's a little disappointing to see that somehow the alliance has become the focus of a political fight between the two parties," he said.

Japan appears content with backseat role in Asian defense

BY Richard Halloran
Sunday, Nov 11, 2007, Page 9

After five years of solidifying Japan-US security relations under the leadership of former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, the alliance over the past year has lurched into a sharp decline under his successor Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda because Tokyo has reverted to the insular politics of yesteryear.

At issue has been a cynical ploy of the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, Ichiro Ozawa, to use what he perceived to be public disapproval of Japan's maritime support for the US in the Indian Ocean to force out Fukuda, of the Liberal Democratic Party. Fukuda, in turn, dallied in a half-hearted effort to bring Ozawa around.

Both, it seems, misread public opinion. Polls taken by the Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, and Nihon Keizai newspapers, and the Kyodo News Agency, found that 44 to 49 percent of Japanese approved of Japan's naval deployments. In contrast, 30 to 43 percent, a wider spread, disapproved.

As the Economist magazine said in an editorial: "So is this the Japan of old: self-absorbed, unashamed at leaving others to do the hard military tasks?"

Fukuda, who has been in office less than two months, was forced to withdraw Japanese vessels from the Indian Ocean because he had not persuaded the Diet to extend the law authorizing them to refuel ships of the US and three other nations there. In six years, the Japanese had performed 780 refueling operations. A less visible airlift in which Japanese military planes ferried people and cargo on 380 flights within Japan also ended.

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Graham, a US Air Force operations officer, was quoted in Stars & Stripes, the US military newspaper, as saying: "It allowed us to dedicate our aircraft to other missions," including flights into Iraq and Afghanistan.

A year ago, Japan pulled its contingent of 500 soldiers out of Iraq, where they had been assigned non-combatant tasks. The Japanese had rotated 10 such units through Iraq for six months at a time, the first overseas deployment of Japanese soldiers since World War II.

Moreover, several Tokyo press reports said Fukuda's government was planning to reduce its financial support for US forces in Japan when the fiscal year begins next April. Japan pays for most of the yen costs at US bases in Japan, such as rent, labor, and utilities. That runs to US$4 billion to US$5 billion a year, or about 10 percent of Japan's military budget.

Into this valley of disarray rode US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates seeking to get the alliance back on track. He told Fukuda, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba last week it was "unfortunate" that the refueling operation had been suspended and urged Japan to "resume its leadership" in Asia. He told them the US was trying to mitigate the loss of Japan's fuel supplies.

US military officers informed on events in Japan contended, somewhat anxiously, that the damage to the alliance would be limited to the political sphere.

They said they expected agreements already reached with the Japanese, such as putting a US Army corps headquarters in Camp Zama alongside a Japanese headquarters, would go forward.The government in Tokyo, moreover, has agreed to pay for 60 percent of the US$10 billion cost of moving 8,000 US Marines and 9,000 dependents and civilian employees to Guam from Okinawa, leaving just under 10,000 Marines on Japan's southern island. That move is to be completed in 2014-2015.

Even so, the law of unintended consequences seemed to be at work. Japan's emergence from the postwar cocoon in which it had wrapped itself after World War II and from which it seemed to be shedding has come into question. Japan's hopes for attaining a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, always tenuous at best, have been set back.

The "Asian Gateway Initiative" proclaimed by Abe last spring appears in jeopardy. It was to have eased Japan into a "responsible role in the development of Asia" and to have had Japan take the lead in forging "an open regional order," emphasizing economic progress.

Just after he took office, Fukuda said in a policy address: "Maintaining the solid Japan-US alliance and promoting international cooperation are the foundation of Japan's diplomacy." He pledged "that Japan will realize its responsibilities commensurate with its national strength in the international community, and become a country which is relied upon internationally."

Those aspirations have dropped below the horizon, at least for the immediate future.

Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.

Fukuda seeks greater military role

AGENCIES, TOKYO
Wednesday, Oct 10, 2007, Page 1

NO BYSTANDER: As the Japanese PM argued for a more proactive Japan, Tokyo said it would deploy F-15 aircraft to Okinawa to police airspace violations

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda yesterday told a resurgent opposition that Japan must not be a "bystander" in the US-led "war on terror" as he fought to extend a naval mission in the Indian Ocean.

The opposition won control of one house of parliament in July elections and has vowed to defeat government proposals to extend the naval mission providing fuel and logistical support to US-led forces in Afghanistan.

It has so far ignored a government compromise that would stop refueling operations backing combat troops, restricting support to ships policing the Indian Ocean.

Addressing a parliamentary committee attended by key lawmakers from the ruling coalition and opposition, Fukuda said that Japan, as the world's second-largest economy, needed to contribute to international security.

Saying that the international community was united after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, Fukuda said: "How can we sit back as a bystander?"

He also assured the opposition that the Indian Ocean mission does not violate Japan's pacifist Constitution, which was imposed by the US after World War II.

"First of all, the mission is not an act of force," Fukuda said. "It does not infringe on the Constitution at all."

Meanwhile, the US and Japan were locked in a dispute over Washington's demand that Tokyo shoulder more costs for water supplies and utilities at US military bases in Japan, media reports said on Monday.

Washington has urged Japan to cover rising costs of boosting US military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region to deal with North Korea and China, Kyodo news agency quoted sources close to the matter as saying.

"It could cause a crack in the Japan-US relationship," Kyodo quoted a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official as saying.

Japan, plagued by bulging public debts, wants to reduce the so-called "sympathy budget" it sets aside each year under bilateral agreements to help support nearly 50,000 US military personnel in Japan.

For the fiscal year ending in March, Japan allocated ?217.3 billion (US$1.86 billion) for the sympathy budget, ?115 billion to cover salaries for Japanese employees at the bases and ?25.3 billion for electricity, water and gas.

Meanwhile, in an apparent move to enhance its defenses against China, the Japanese Defense Ministry announced yesterday it would deploy F-15 fighter aircraft on Okinawa for the first time by early 2009.

The ministry also plans to deploy AH-64D Apache helicopters on the southern main island of Kyushu as part of the planned fleet relocation to step up defenses against China, the Nikkei said yesterday.

Editorial: US, Japan have no choice but to work together

By Richard Halloran
Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007, Page 9


The most prominent Japanese opposition figure seems willing to jeopardize the US alliance for political gain

Searching conversations with Japanese diplomats, politicians, officials, academics, business executives and journalists in Japan and the US over the last several years have almost always led to the same conclusion: When it comes to national security, Japan has no choice but to nurture its alliance with the US.

Confronted with a North Korea armed with missiles and nuclear weapons, anxious about a possible long-term threat from China, worried about a resurgent Russia, and concerned over barely concealed hostility from South Korea, the Japanese said they could turn only to the US.

"We want to have a more independent foreign policy," said an influential journalist, adding in the next breath, "but only in the context of our alliance with America."

Even Japanese efforts to reach out to other democracies in Australia and India are within the framework of the alliance with the US.

On the other side, a number of opposite numbers in the US who are well versed in the security issues of Asia assert that the US has no choice but to rely on Japan as its main ally in Asia. And like Japan, the US has been reaching out to Australia and India to buttress its security posture in Asia.

critical partner

Admiral Michael Mullen, the chief of naval operations who is about to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said in Washington this week that Japan was a "very critical partner." He said he had found Japanese officers sharing his "uncertainty" over China's military investments but was encouraged by recent joint maritime operations with Japan and India.

The central question today is whether new Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and his most prominent opponent, Ichiro Ozawa, understand this fundamental reality. My guess is that Fukuda does understand and is prepared to act accordingly. Ozawa also appears to understand but is willing to jeopardize the alliance as he seeks domestic political advantage.

Among his first acts after taking office this week, Fukuda spoke with US President George W. Bush by telephone and arranged an early visit to Washington, possibly next month. Kyodo News reported that Fukuda told Bush he would seek to have Japanese ships continue dispensing fuel to US and allied vessels in the Indian Ocean beyond Nov. 1, when their legal authority is to expire.

Ozawa opposes that deployment even though earlier he was seen as an advocate of the alliance with the US. He was the author of a book, Blueprint for a New Japan, in which he argued that Japan should become a "normal nation" taking a responsible role in international relations. He has now cynically turned that on its head as he seeks to obstruct the new prime minister.

The rivalry between Ozawa and Fukuda goes back a generation. Ozawa's political mentor, the late prime minister Kakuei Tanaka, who served from 1972 to 1974, and Fukuda's father, Takeo Fukuda, who was prime minister from 1976 to 1978, were fierce rivals -- and political memories in Japan are long.

old-fashioned

The conventional wisdom emanating from Tokyo holds that Fukuda was unenthusiastic about running for prime minister, that he lacks the experience to excel, and that he seems to be a dull, old-fashioned politician.

But Fukuda won the party election, which made him prime minister, rather handily.

He showed considerable political skill in pulling together his party's factions, the key operating units in Japanese politics. Fukuda may have learned that from his father, who had an uncanny grasp of the intricacies of Japanese political practices. Moreover, Fukuda was chief Cabinet secretary from 2000 to 2004.

In Japan's government by Cabinet and consensus, the prime minister is the first among equals. The chief Cabinet secretary holds ministerial rank, is executive officer and spokesman for the Cabinet, and is second in authority to the prime minister. Seven of Fukuda's predecessors were chief Cabinet secretaries before ascending to the top position.

Shortly after the terrorist assaults in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda announced that Japan would dispatch two destroyers and a supply ship to the Indian Ocean. Right after that, he disclosed an eight-point anti-terror plan that included "support for neighboring countries of Afghanistan, in particular to Pakistan."

And when US soldiers captured former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in 2003, the chief Cabinet secretary praised "the courage and endurance of the allied forces in Iraq, including the United States and United Kingdom."

Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.

Bureaucrats in Japan celebrate Abe's dwindling power to reform

Taipei Times
By Matsuhiro Matsumura
Monday, Aug 20, 2007, Page 9

Much has been made of the massive defeat Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered in the recent election to Japan's Upper House. But, as the smoke dissipates from that vote, it has become clear that the real victor is neither the leading opposition Democratic Party (DPJ) nor the electorate. Instead, it is Japan's bureaucrats who are celebrating.

The aim of these entrenched mandarins is to block Abe's plans for extensive civil-service reforms intended to inhibit them from parachuting into lucrative post-retirement jobs in the public corporations and private firms that they once regulated. They also want to stop Abe from dismantling and privatizing one of their central fiefdoms, the Social Security Agency. In this struggle, the mandarins are aligning themselves with the DPJ, at least to the general public's eye, because it has proposed merging the Social Security Agency with the National Tax Agency, a move that would ensure government jobs for the former's employees.

The LDP's declining vote is attributable largely to Abe's mishandling of pension fund issues, particularly his late admission of knowledge last December about 50 million "lost" pension files. This followed other minor scandals concerning the misuse of political funds, which had led to two resignations and the suicide of one of Abe's Cabinet ministers.

Mandarins

But a close look reveals the hands of the mandarins behind these debacles. Abe and his ministers were simply not provided with critical facts by the bureaucrats who are supposed to serve them. Indeed, a DPJ member of the Diet was able to pose pointed questions to Abe and his ministers because he had obtained detailed information from an unidentified Social Security Agency official.

This constant stream of leaks from the bureaucrats has seriously shaken popular confidence in the Abe administration as well as the ruling LDP. The mandarins are now counting on an Upper House controlled by the DPJ to wreck Abe's civil-service reforms.

Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi handpicked Abe as his successor to continue his administration's central policies: divorcing the LDP from pork-barrel politics and consolidating the huge non-performing loans in the private sector that resulted from the collapse of Japan's property market bubble in the early 1990s. By revitalizing and modernizing Japan's financial system, and by getting politicians out of the game, Koizumi intended to reinvigorate the Japanese economy.

Koizumi had real successes in these reform efforts, which significantly transformed a malfunctioning Japanese state that was in the grip of pork-barrel LDP politicians, bureaucrats, and big business elites. Koizumi had relied on the bureaucrats to implement his reforms, but he did so at the price of postponing an overhaul of the civil service, which became a poisoned chalice that he passed on to Abe.

Star Power

Moreover, Abe's lack of Koizumi's star quality and outsider charisma has made him rely more heavily than his predecessor on the LDP's existing leadership. These leaders are less concerned with the reform agenda than with promoting patriotism among Japanese youth, upgrading the Defense Agency to a ministry, and enacting a law to permit a referendum to revise the pacifist constitution. These are all important matters, but they are not among the electorate's priorities.

Koizumi's approach was to defy the LDP's leaders by appealing over their heads directly to the electorate. He successfully portrayed himself as a rebel resisting the LDP's old guard in defense of ordinary Japanese.

But Koizumi's reforms seemed to abandon not only rent-seekers, but also the disadvantaged who had relied on the state's protectionist measures. Abe is now confronting the legacy of this strategy: domestic polarization between highly educated and unskilled labor, between competitive and declining sectors, and between urban and rural areas. And, to protect their jobs, the bureaucrats are now aligning their interests with those who see themselves as having lost out in the Koizumi years.

The DPJ, now temporarily aligned with low-profile bureaucrats behind the scene, can now either obstruct any bill in the Upper House that is sponsored by Abe's administration, thereby cornering him into dissolving the Lower House, or they can engage in meticulous deliberations in the Diet in the hope of demonstrating to the electorate their fitness to govern. The DPJ's leader, Ichiro Ozawa, seems to be opting for the obstructionist approach favored by the bureaucrats, which will seek to bring not only a populist reversal of Koizumi's economic and political reforms, but the shelving of Abe's civil-service reforms as well.

Japan will now likely face a hung Diet for a year or two. But, in the end, it will have to decide if it wants to be governed by the LDP, which at least offers the possibility of addressing Japan's problems, or a DPJ in complete thrall to the bureaucracy and the past. Until Koizumi, the electorate was never faced with such clear-cut choices, and his administration taught the Japanese to like them. In the meantime, Japan will drift, unable to take any significant foreign policy decision at a time when Asia's security landscape is changing rapidly.

Masahiro Matsumura is a professor of International Politics at St. Andrew's University in Osaka, Japan.

The US and Japan start to put muscle into their new alliance

By Richard Halloran
Monday, Mar 14, 2005, Page 9


In a scenario unimaginable 60 years ago at the end of World War II, the former enemies are pooling their efforts and resources for their collective national security

In the coming months, US and Japanese military officers and defense officials will be sitting down in Tokyo, the Pacific Command in Hawaii and Washington to determine ways to put muscle into the swiftly maturing alliance between the US and Japan.

If all goes well, those efforts will produce a joint declaration by US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi next autumn that will reflect the most fundamental and far-reaching revision of the alliance since the US-Japan Security Treaty was rewritten in 1960.

The critical feature: The US and Japan will transform their security bond from one of senior partner-junior partner to one of more nearly equals in policy and strategy, even if the military power of the US still overshadows that of Japan.

Among the vital issues to be worked out, Japanese and US officials say, are:

One, roles and missions, in which Americans and Japanese will decide on a division of labor and which forces will be responsible for what missions, to make best use of those forces and to preclude duplication.

Two, expanded combined operations and training, especially between Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and the US Army and US Marine Corps. The navies and air forces, which already coordinate many operations, would do more of the same.

Three, sharing intelligence as the Japanese, in particular, strengthen their ability to collect and analyze information and then to meld it with intelligence produced by US services.

Four, revised war plans, a touchy subject that officials are reluctant to discuss in public. A US official said, however: "We continually review our bilateral coordination mechanisms and processes."

Five, moving a US Army corps headquarters to Japan from the US to put it in the region where it would operate and into close proximity to Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force for combined planning, training and operations.

Six, researching and building a combined ballistic missile defense that would be aimed first at the missile threat from North Korea, which fired a missile over Japan in 1998, and then at the longer range threat from China.

All of this is part of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's plan for a rigorous overhaul of the US military posture in Asia. It calls for dismantling the many-layered command structure in South Korea, consolidating control into a streamlined US headquarters in Japan, reducing US forces in South Korea and giving those that remain a regional rather than a local mission.

When US and Japanese officials began discussing the realignment of US forces in Japan, the US focused on the command element while the Japanese sought to reduce the friction of US bases next to Japanese neighborhoods. Before the negotiations went far, the two sides agreed that they needed basic reassessment of the alliance.

In Japan, Koizumi formed a commission on security led by a prominent business executive, Hiroshi Araki of Tokyo Electric Power. The commission recommended in October last year that Japan forge an "integrated security strategy" through "strategic consultations" with the US.

Then came two declarations in Tokyo and one in Washington that would have been unthinkable five years ago from a Japan that had wrapped itself in a pacifist cocoon after the devastating defeat of World War II.

In December, Koizumi's government published a new defense guideline and a plan to expand Japan's defenses over the next five years. The guideline said: "Japan's defense forces are the ultimate security of its national security."

The guideline further said(rt)0314p09.tif Japan should "engage in strategic dialogue" with the US to include role-sharing, intelligence exchange, cooperative operations, exchanges of technology and "efforts to make the stationing of US forces in Japan smoother."

Last month, Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, Defense Minister Yoshinori Ohno, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Rumsfeld met in Washington to approve "common strategic objectives" that called for US and Japanese forces to "maintain the capability to address contingencies affecting the United States and Japan."

Machimura said that the strategic dialogue has three stages: The review of strategic objectives just concluded, an examination of Japanese and US missions and capabilities now started, and scrutiny of US bases in Japan.

Japan and the US have thus come a long way in sixty years. In April 1945, US and Japanese troops were locked in the bloody battle of Okinawa in which 250,000 people, including 150,000 Okinawan civilians, perished. Today, Japanese and US military officers sit side by side poring over maps and tables to figure out how best to deter mutual adversaries in the future.

Richard Halloran is a writer based in Hawaii.

Japan makes history with its mission to Iraq

By Linda Sieg
Thursday, Jan 15, 2004, Page 9
REUTERS, Tokyo

The country is cautiously moving award from a purely defensive role for its armed forces to one of participating in international military operations

When Japanese soldiers arrive in Iraq later this month, they won't be making war. They will be making history.

The dispatch, expected to become Japan's biggest and riskiest overseas military mission since World War II, marks a milestone in a shift away from a purely defensive posture toward a larger international role for the nation's military.

Japanese troops in Iraq will operate in what experts agree is a conflict zone, where the risk of casualties is high and the blue helmets of a UN peacekeeping force are nowhere to be seen.

"Is Japan's security policy undergoing a major transformation? I think the answer is `yes,'" said Richard Samuels, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor.

"Putting `boots on the ground' in Iraq is fundamentally different from anything they have done in the past half century."

If successful, the Iraqi operation could become a model for future missions and accelerate a drive by neo-conservatives in Japan to revise its pacifist Constitution.

No member of Japan's military has fired a shot in combat or been killed in an overseas mission since World War II, and substantial casualties in Iraq could spark a public backlash that would rock Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government and hamper the forging of a new security policy.

"There might be a setback because of severe casualties," said Akio Watanabe, president of the Research Institute for Peace and Security, a think tank. "Public opinion is still very fluid in that sense."

A small advance army team is expected to leave later this week for southern Iraq, where they will act as scouts for a Japanese force that could number some 1,000 personnel on a mission to provide humanitarian aid and help rebuild the country.

A law enabling the dispatch limits its activities to "non-combat" zones, a concept hard to apply in Iraq, where at least 261 US and allied military personnel have been killed in attacks since May, when US President George W. Bush declared major combat over.

Japan's constitution renounces the right to wage war, bans the maintenance of a military except for defensive purposes, and has been interpreted as prohibiting the exercise of the right of collective self-defense, or aiding allies when they are attacked.

Untested in combat

The Self-Defense Forces (SDF), as the military is known, celebrate their 50th birthday this year, and though untested in combat are comparable in terms of spending and manpower to those of Britain.

For most of those 50 years, the forces were kept at home and efforts to expand their reach and role constrained by the Constitution as well as by reluctance to fan fears among Asian neighbors of resurgent Japanese militarism.

But stung by criticism of a "checkbook diplomacy" which gave cash but no troops for the 1991 Gulf War, Japan has stretched the limits of the Constitution over the past dozen years.

A 1992 law allowed Japanese forces to take part in UN-led peacekeeping operations, though with severe restrictions.

In 2001, Japan deployed its navy to the Indian Ocean to provide logistical support for the US-led war in Afghanistan, the first post-World War II dispatch to a war situation.

Experts agree, though, that the level of risk and absence of a clear UN mandate make the Iraq operation qualitatively different.

HUGGING AMERICA

Behind Koizumi's decision to take such a risky step is both a long-felt desire to normalize Japan's gun-shy, postwar defense policies and more recent worries about North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and China as an emerging regional power.

The US, Tokyo's main security ally, has also been pressuring Japan to take a bigger global role.

"If they didn't fear the possibility of abandonment by the United States on North Korea, they wouldn't feel the need to hug the United States more vigorously," Samuels said.

Koizumi backed the US-led war on Iraq despite opposition from the majority of Japanese voters and is moving ahead on the troop dispatch to Iraq in the face of polls showing that most of the public want to wait at least until the country is safer.

While many voters appear to be abandoning the pacifism that defined Japan's postwar security debate, a sense of forced obedience to Washington has fostered some resentment.

"The feeling is mixed. We love America, but we don't like our people always having to obey US pressure," said defense policy expert Satoshi Morimoto.

Few, however, would suggest that Japan try to go it alone on defense in the foreseeable future.

Despite the policy shift, few expect Japan to soon become a "Britain of Asia," fighting alongside US forces overseas.

"The Japanese government cannot be so bold," Watanabe said.

"I think they will stick to providing logistical support rather than actual fighting. My conclusion as to whether Japan has crossed the Rubicon [taken an irrevocable step] is `yes,' but very cautiously."