Role for troops from Japan

Press, 5 August 1980, Page 16

Role for troops from Japan

By

DONALD KIRK

in Tokyo

A top-level committee, in Japan’s Foreign Ministry has recommended the first tentative step towards sending Japanese troops abroad since World War 11. . A nrnnncol cutyopctc

A draft proposal suggests providing troops for United Nations peace-keeping noting that 'such duties would not violate the spirit of Article Nine of Japan's “peace” Constitution, which bans any kind of militarism. The “Japan Times,” which is noted for its close ties with the Foreign Ministry, describes the proposal as “a bold shift of Japan’s policy,” and predicts it will “give rise to-much controversy.”

Reliable sources say the proposal by the Ministry’s Security Committee was motivated by ' Soviet moves in the area and fears of waning U.S. military strength rather than by any immediate interest in UN peace-keeping activities. The committee, which had been working on the proposal for a year, published its findings just after President Carter’s visit for the funeral of Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira. While in Tokyo Mr Carter met Chairman Hua Guofeng of China and stressed- the need for defence against Soviet moves throughout Asia.

The committee wants the Government to revise the law governing the SelfDefence Forces, as Japan’s military are euphemistically called, so that they could go abroad under the aegis of the United Nations.

Anticipating opposition, the committee said Japanese troops could at first limit their activities to “medical” and “surveillance” missions, and not carry weapons. The report emerged in the context of a long-running debate over whether to increase military spending beyond 1 per cent of gross national product — a proportion amounting to SK) billion this year. Carter, in his last meeting with Ohira at the White House in May, urged . Japan to carry out its current defence development plan in three years instead of five. Two weeks ago, another committee appointed by Mr Ohira produced a controversial report , urging that Japan abandon all formal ceilings on military spending. “Our effort is to break the *1 per cent’ taboo,” said Professor Masataka Kosaka, one of the authors of the report. “We want to be free from the past.” The report recommended sweeping technological improvements, claiming Japan did not have the minimum defences needed to hold off a Soviet attapk for even a few weeks before U.S. forces could come to the rescue under the terms of the U.S.Japan Security Treaty. Copyright, London Observer service.