EDITORIAL: New defense strategy

The Cabinet on Friday endorsed a new defense policy outline--the first since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power last year.

The new National Defense Program Guidelines reflect concerns about China's military buildup and send out a clear message about Japan's will to respond militarily to a threat to its national security.

The security situation in East Asia is becoming increasingly unstable. Japan's shift from its traditional restrained stance to a policy of actively responding to threats has huge diplomatic implications.

This policy change could not just irk China, and thereby heighten tension in the region, but also cause the world to doubt Japan's commitment to its pacifist principle of maintaining a strictly defensive posture. It is doubtful that the administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan was keenly aware of the enormous international repercussions that could arise from this document.

The new guidelines have adopted a new concept of "dynamic defense capabilities" as the guiding principle for defense policy, in place of the traditional idea of "basic defense capabilities."

The previous idea required Japan to maintain only minimum defense capabilities of an independent nation. The new principle calls for the Self-Defense Forces to be able to deploy flexibly and quickly. The document stresses that Japan can contribute to regional stability by "increasing the activity" of its defense hardware and "clearly demonstrating" its advanced capabilities.

We don't deny that the new policy could have such positive effects. However, the new defense policy could be seen by Japan's neighbors as a sign that it is relaxing its longstanding policy of self-restraint.

The new defense policy contains few references to conflict prevention--efforts to prevent escalation of disputes by using a combination of military power, diplomatic effort and economic and development aid.

Among these tools, diplomatic power is especially important. While bilateral defense exchanges and efforts to build mutual trust between Japan and China remain on hold, the United States, through tenacious diplomacy, has managed to persuade China to reopen the bilateral military exchanges suspended after Washington's arms sales to Taiwan.

Last year, then Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed his wish to make the East China Sea "a sea of fraternity." In their meeting last month, Prime Minister Kan and Chinese President Hu Jintao reaffirmed their commitment to promoting a relationship based on strategic mutual benefit. But the defense guidelines give the impression of a serious inconsistency between the government's foreign policy and its defense policy.

We strongly believe that it is necessary for the government to develop a comprehensive national security strategy that goes beyond the framework of the defense guidelines.

The government has stopped short of declaring an end to the nation's three principles restraining arms exports. It would be wise to spend more time on carefully debating this issue.

There had been an expectation that the new defense guidelines would be developed with strong civilian, political leadership. Those expectations had been fostered by last year's regime change, in which the Democratic Party of Japan took over the government after years of Liberal Democratic Party domination. That transfer of power was a manifestation of civilian control of Japan's political process.

However, there are no clear signs of deep involvement by politicians in the writing of the new plan. Debate on core issues has been left to independent experts.

The efforts to build Japan's defense capabilities under the new policy will now enter the implementation stage, requiring reorganization and operational reviews.

In order to avoid unintended friction, Kan should offer a detailed explanation to convince the international community, including China, that the new plan does not constitute a departure from Japan's traditional strictly defensive posture.

It is also imperative for the government to create new frameworks to restrict the SDF's operations and budget.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 18