When is an army not an army? When it’s Japanese

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 13

When is an army not an army? When it’s Japanese

By

ROBERT WHYMANT,

“Sunday Times.*’ London

In principle, Japan has no armed forces. Even its euphemistically named “self-defence” establishment is widely regarded as illegal under the postwar constitution. Yet this year its defence budget, at SBOOOM, will be greater than that of embattled Israel. (New Zealand’s is $255M).

In recent Weeks there have been reports of plans to order aircraft carriers, new recruitment procedures, and recommendations that Japanese troops should be made available for United

Nations peace-keeping work overseas. Japan is reckoned already to be the strongest military nation in Asia, next to China. All this is rarely mentioned by Japanese politicians. However, the Government’s chief legal adviser, . Hideo Sanada, said this month that the constitution could change “according to circumstances,” This was a remarkable admission. Up to now, the huge military build-up has gone on under the pre- ■ fence that the arms were needed for national

defence — acceptable, just, under the pacifist clauses of the constitution. The timing of Sanada’s admission was revealing. He was defending a decision to buy F-15 Eagle fighter planes. Japan already has short-haul bombers, but these Eagle fighters can refuel in midair for long-range bombing missions. Attacking Sanada, a socialist member of parliament, Tetsu Noda, said that the F-15 would pose a threat to other natrons. If the constitution could be twisted in this way, he

added, it could just as easily be contorted to allow Japan to have nuclear weapons.

Last month, the Prime Minister, Takeo Fukuda, spoke of increased public “understanding and interest” in defence questions, and promised to build up the country’s “necessary defence capabilities.” Just before that Shin Kanemaru, the Minister without Portfolio, who is responsible for defence, drew a storm of criticism when he told paratroops at an inspection that they ought to “pose enough of a threat to foreign countries to discourage them from invading.”

In Japan, despite Sanada, it is still considered downright bad taste to state the truth so boldly. The 266,000 men in uniform are officially intended only to hold off “a small-scale aggression” (in the words of the 1977 defence white paper) until the United States can rush to Japan’s aid, as required by treaty.

The Japanese troops are in no circumstances meant to inspire fear or to pose a threat to anyone. Kanernaru was predictably, if routinely, hauled over the coals by the Parliamentary

Opposition. But there are several signs that others may be coming round to his way of thinking. • A poll by Kanemaru’s defence agency last December showed that 83 per cent of the Japanese favoured the existence of the armed forces compared with 79 per cent in 1975 and 73 per cent in 1972. • Last month, Japan’s second largest Opposition party, the Komeito. endorsed the defence forces (which it had previously attacked) — even if their existence did violate the constitution.

• The Socialist Party even agreed to the setting up of a parliamentary committee on defence matters, unthinkable a few years ago — following a gradual easing of its hatred of, the armed forces. The reversal is extraordinary. For much of the post-war period the armed forces were often called “tax thieves” by the Japanese. Even today you will still see the slogan “The self-defence forces are illegal” scrawled on walls round military bases. But this rejection was aimed at an army that lost the war — nobody likes a loser. Now all that has changed (see diagram). As the world’s third major economic power,

Japan has a vast industrial base that could be geared to armament production. It already makes aircraft, helicopters, warships, tanks, and almost all its ammunition and artillery. From 1980 Japan will

mass-produce its own air-to-ship missiles, with a sophisticated guidance system to be fitted to its home-made fighter plane, the F-l. A.nd it will soon be able to make its own anti-tank missiles and short-range ground-to-air missiles, now supplied by the United States. Japan also has a space satellite programme with an obvious military potential. “Though its" rocket programme still depends on United States technology, Japan will eventually be able to produce the propulsion, guidance, and reentry vehicle for a strategic weapons system,” says Tomohisa Sakanaka, a Japanese defence specialist. When Kanemaru spoke to his paratroops he was of course inviting criticism — but nowadays no- / body goes into such basic questions as: What is a

“defence" force doing with a paratroop brigade equipped with helicopters and C-l transporters anyway? (Its ocmmander, General Nasu, told me once: “Attack is the best form of defence” — some-

thing a Japanese defence minister would still away from saying.) Japan’s 1978 defend budget of SBOOOM is well below Britain’s Sl2.oooMplus, but the comparison is misleading, because major items such as service pensions, married quarters, and education and welfare costs are not included in Japan’s budget. Britain also supports forces overseas. By contrast, 50,000 American troops in Japan are supported by American taxpayers to the tune of some SSOOOM a year. By N.A.T.O. criteria, Japan's defence spending is not far behind Britain’s. Officially, Japan's defence costs this year will remain within one per cent of gross national product, but sources inside the defence agency reveal that by international stan-

aciual percentage' is already closer to IA. New comes pressure on Fukuda from his party colleagues, and sectors of industry, to lift the limit, just as American cong.essmen and defence chiefs have long been urging, in view pluses. of his time to tel! the (ormer prime minister, Nouusuke Kishi. thai Japan Fukuda, who happens to pected to meet Carter this year and assure i m Japan’s valiant efforts to cut its trade surplus American fighters and missiles are a safer import bet than American farm produce when Fukuda depends on keeping the farm vote happy. After conventional weapons, what? Japan already has the technical capability to make nuclear weapons, and carries a stock of plutonium. Just as Japan has "self-defence forces” banned by its constiution, it is also conceivable that it could get round its no-nuclear-weapons policy and become the first country to develop a “self-defence atom bomb.”