NATO-ization of Japan
Protest, November 19,
2022 in Japan against acquiring nuclear aircraft carriers.
Alarm is growing in Japan as the ruling elite prepare for war. In conjunction with the U.S. imperialists, Japan is being drawn into the U.S./NATO war alliance. At the end of 2022, the ruling Kishida militarists announced a military budget that will bring spending up to the two per cent of GDP target demanded for membership in NATO. The situation highlights the necessity for those in NATO countries such as Canada to step up their anti-war activities including the demand to disband NATO. Canada and other NATO countries need anti-war governments and to make their nations zones of peace.
Rapid Expansion of Japan's War Budget
The Japan militarist government will raise war spending by ¥1 trillion (around CAD$10 billion) this year alone to a total of ¥6.5 trillion (CAD$65 billion). The five-year war budget "build-up plan" is to inject an additional ¥43 trillion into military spending reaching an annual 2 per cent of GDP by 2027 as demanded for membership in the aggressive U.S.-led military alliance NATO. The fiscal 2023 increased war budget of ¥6.5 trillion compares with the ¥5.5 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year, which itself is a record amount.
War spending will increase around ¥1 trillion every year over the next five years. Of the military defence spending during that time, the militarist government says ¥5 trillion will go towards standoff missiles and another ¥5 trillion for ammunition. Wikipedia defines standoff missiles as offensive weapons.[1]
Japan's Updated War Documents
The following is the gist of the war documents released by the militarist government, including its long-term policy guidelines called the National Security Strategy (NSS).
The Japanese military will acquire "counterstrike capability allowing it to strike targets in enemy territory." The enemy includes three main targets defining China as the "greatest strategic challenge," the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a "graver more imminent threat than before," and Russia as a "serious security concern." A counterstrike capability allows Japan to hit "enemy bases and command-and-control nodes with longer-range standoff missiles."
The NSS document states, "Looking at Japan's surroundings, it is facing the most severe and complex security environment since the end of World War II" noting what it calls a growing pressure "by those seeking to unilaterally change the status quo by force." The NSS document says, "China has intensified coercive military activities around Taiwan, and concerns about peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are rapidly increasing not only in the Indo-Pacific region, including in Japan, but also with the entire international community."
The NSS statement is made at a time U.S. imperialism still maintains 23 military occupation bases in Japan, hundreds of war planes and ships and thousands of troops. It also has military bases, naval and air forces and thousands of troops in south Korea and throughout the South Pacific. In addition despite almost unanimous opposition by elected and non-elected officials and the majority of the population in Okinawa, the Japanese militarist government is spending public funds to build new U.S. military bases and ports on the main Okinawa Island and off Kyushu on Mageshima Island.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the world is currently "at a historical crossroads," which requires that Japan act with urgency. He said the new war spending including the counterstrike capability are "within the scope of the Constitution" and that the country's exclusively defence-oriented policy would remain in place. "Japan's progress as a peaceful nation will remain unchanged," he stated.
Many Japanese disagree with those words and recognize that since the defeat of the militarists in 1945, the U.S. occupation has kept the same militarist groups and families in power. The U.S. imperialists, with their dozens of military installations in Japan and vassals in economic and political power, have used the country as a staging ground and military supplier for U.S. imperialist wars in Korea and Vietnam, and to intimidate China and strive for hegemony over the entire Indo-Pacific region. The Japanese economy of industrial mass production has been integrated into the U.S. war economy.
Integration with U.S. Military and NATO
To put the first-strike capability into practice, the war documents say Japan, within five years, will extend the range of its homegrown Type-12 standoff missiles and buy U.S.-made Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of about 1,600 kilometres. The Tomahawks are intended to fill any immediate gaps in the initial five-year plan while the range of the Type-12 missiles is extended. Total costs for the standoff capability are expected to be around ¥5 trillion.
The documents signal that the counterstrike capability is also intended to be an element of a larger plan moving Japan toward an integrated air and missile defence system, which along with expanding U.S. military bases in Japan will require increased cooperation with the U.S. military as well as NATO.
The documents also detail Japan's plans to transition to an "active cyber defence" policy that would see it dramatically expand the number of military cyber experts from a core of about 890 people currently employed to about 4,000 personnel by fiscal year 2027, with the number of Defense Ministry and active military cyber personnel altogether hitting approximately 20,000.
The two per cent war spending target, enshrined in the NSS and the ¥43 trillion plan laid out in the country's Defence Program would put Japan on par with NATO's defence spending standard. This is a departure from the country's informal cap on outlays of around one per cent of GDP and signals a willingness to join the U.S. aggressive military alliance NATO.
Sebastian Maslow, a lecturer at Sendai Shirayuri Women's College, says the revised documents expand Japan's role within its military alliance with the United States and strengthen the U.S.-led defence posture in the Indo-Pacific. These steps, Maslow says, expand bilateral defence cooperation to one where Japan openly acknowledges its role not as a "shield" but as a "sword" in its relationship with the U.S. This increase in capabilities and sophistication will enable greater integration with U.S. and partner forces at a time when Washington can no longer guarantee a favourable regional balance of power by itself, Maslow contends.
The newspaper Akahata reports that the Kishida militarist government will give the military the right to use U.S.-made missiles for first-strikes against China, Korea and Russia within the U.S. Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) air-defence network. According to the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff doctrine, the IAMD system is aimed at a global strike capable of destroying any target, including enemy missile bases, runways, and command/control centres, with the use of long-range precision guided weapons.
The military of the Japan government, using information provided by the U.S. military and with its direction, will launch assaults on enemy targets. The Kishida militarist government of the cartel Liberal Democratic and Komei parties admit to the possibility that Japan may engage in an enemy strike including pre-emptive attacks as part of what it calls its "exercise of the right to collective self-defence" within the U.S.-Japan military alliance. This is not just a matter of legislation. Akahata says the introduction of the IAMD system will make Japan come under the U.S. operational military control.
Within this framework of joining the IAMD system and reaching a two per cent of GDP military budget in line with NATO's previously set criteria for membership, people are speaking of the "NATO-ization of east Asia" similar to the "NATO-ization of Europe." Within this scenario, the Japanese militarist Prime Minister Kishida for the first time attended the NATO summit last June and promised to strengthen cooperation with the U.S.-led aggressive alliance.
The doubling of Japan's military spending within five years will make it the world's third largest military budget. The continuation of the U.S. military occupation within a U.S.-Japan military alliance means that Japan is becoming increasingly involved in the aggressive Atlantic alliance leading many to call it the "NATO-ization of Japan."
At the same time, the U.S. militarists are pressuring existing NATO members to become more involved in the Asia region. Under these circumstances, the UK has launched a new military alliance, AUKUS, with the U.S. and Australia, and is taking the lead in European military involvement in the Indo-Pacific region. Meanwhile war ships of NATO member states such as Canada, France and the Netherlands are stepping up their military presence and preparing for war throughout Asia and in particular in East Asia.
President Biden's Secretary of State Applauds Japan's War Spending
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in a statement issued December 16, states, "The United States of America and U.S. Department of State welcome Japan's new National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy, and Defense Buildup Program, which were announced on December 16. As President Biden laid out in our own National Security Strategy, our alliances and partnerships are our most important strategic asset, and Japan's new documents reshape the ability of our Alliance to promote peace and protect the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region and around the world. We applaud Japan's commitment to modernize our Alliance through increased investment in enhanced roles, missions, and capabilities and closer defense cooperation with the United States and other Allies and partners, as outlined in these new documents.
"Japan's strategy converges with our own in recognizing that closer linkages among likeminded nations are paramount to protect shared interests and values and address shared challenges. We welcome the importance Japan places on coordinating with a wider range of partners in the Indo-Pacific and around the globe.
"From Afghanistan to Ukraine, Japan is our indispensable partner in addressing the most pressing challenges to global stability and in supporting all nations that cherish a rules-based international order.
"Congratulations to Japan on this foundational new step in modernizing our Alliance and enhancing our collective capacity to tackle global challenges."
Paying for Increased War Spending
A government panel discussing the expansion of Japan's military submitted its report to Prime Minister Kishida on November 22. The report in part deals with how to pay for the doubling of the war budget within five years. To amass the necessary funds, it stresses the need to impose tax increases on the general public and transfer funding away from social programs and into the war budget.
Japanese Communist Party (JCP) Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a press conference said, "The report indicates a drastic change in Japan's security policy by calling for an enemy-strike capability. The report proposes that the government should use everything at its disposal, including the economy, finance, science technology, and public infrastructure for military purposes."
Koike criticized the report for putting military policy ahead of everything else. He noted that the report demands that the general public pay more taxes and endure cuts in government spending on social security programs and other livelihood-related services in order to finance the huge increase in military spending. He pointed out that in Japan, which is experiencing widening economic inequality and increasing poverty, people are struggling hard to deal with the ongoing price surge. He said that under this situation, if big tax hikes on individuals are carried out as proposed by the expert panel, it is obvious that people's living conditions will be further aggravated, leading to a decline in personal consumption and a further deterioration in Japan's economy.
Koike said the JCP demands an immediate halt to discussions on Japan's possession of a counterforce capability and on the doubling of military spending which will damage people's livelihoods. He added that the JCP will work hard to increase the public movement to prevent the government from carrying out a military buildup policy based on the expert panel's report.
Growing Opposition to Japan-U.S. Military Alliance
Opponents of the Kishida militarist government and the continuing U.S. military occupation of Japan gathered in numbers throughout the country in late November and early December. People have become alarmed at the Kishida militarist government's brazen move to increase military spending to unprecedented post-WWII levels. Anti-war rallies were held throughout Japan on December 8, which marks 81 years since the beginning of open warfare between Japan and the U.S. following Japan's bombing of Hawaii.
Street campaigns took place across Japan engaging the people in discussion on the necessity for an anti-war government. In Tokyo, the Japan Mothers' Congress organizing committee and the Japan Peace Conference organizing committee held one such street speech event. To remind and alert people to the dangers of the surging militarism of the ruling elite, committee members handed out copies of the conscription "red slip" or military call-up-notice the Japanese military government used to force people to become cannon fodder in their endless wars to counter its imperialist competitors such as the U.S. and Britain, and extend its hegemony and colonial rule from Korea to China and beyond in the 1930s and '40s.
Japan Federation of Women's Organizations President Shibata Masako speaking in Tokyo denounced the Kishida militarist government for adding "an enemy-strike capability to Japan's security policy." She condemned the militarist government for its proposals to slash social spending for people's livelihoods, education, and welfare services and move more and more public funds into paying for the huge military buildup. An arms race never leads to peace, Shibata said.
Maki Yuko of the New Japan Women's Association also denounced the Kishida militarist government for its intention to increase Japan's military budget ¥43 trillion over five years. Other speakers appealed for the need to establish diplomacy based on Japan's remorse over its militarist past and march out on a new anti-war path. National Confederation of Trade Unions Vice President Maeda Hiroshi echoed this sentiment stressing the need to strengthen diplomatic efforts not military capabilities.
Public hospital workers' unions held a press conference the following day to protest the Kishida militarist government's attempt to use reserve funds held in public hospitals to finance the plan to raise military spending by ¥43 trillion. The militarist government has announced its intention to transfer to the military ¥150 billion in reserve funds held by national and other public hospitals.
Japan National Hospital Workers' Union Secretary General Suzuki Hitoshi said holding of medical reserve funds is necessary so that public hospitals can continue to function in local communities in case of an emergency and should never be handed over for military use.
The secretary general of the union organizing workers at Japan Community Healthcare Organization hospitals Kaneko Masahito said that public hospitals' reserve funds exist to provide better health care and nursing-care services to local people and that the Kishida militarist government's attempt to use such money for military purposes is totally unacceptable.
An anti-war rally was held in Tokyo in early November calling for Japan to become a zone for peace and to increase spending on social programs not on war. The rally protested the Kishida militarist government for pushing war preparations with a huge military buildup while neglecting people's suffering caused by the ongoing cost-of-living increase crisis.
Speakers pointed out the nefarious form of anti-communist politics pushed by the Kishida militarist government in alliance with reactionaries of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification known as Moonies. The war propaganda of the government in concert with the Moonies was exposed after the assassination of the former militarist prime minister Abe. An investigation exposed the close connection of the ruling cartel party with the anti-communist unification church. A series of ministerial resignations and "money-for-politics" scandals involving Kishida cabinet ministers, as reported in the media, have revealed a reactionary pro-war anti-communist alliance between the unification church and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party dating back 60 years. The current proposed war spending is a culmination of this relationship within the U.S. imperialist campaign for the containment of communism and to gain world hegemony through war and other means.
Speakers at the Tokyo rally denounced the Kishida militarist government's move for a huge military buildup and possession of a first-strike capability to attack China, Korea and Russia. They said the militarist government is obsessed with a revanchist spirit and the dream of turning Japan once again into a "war-fighting nation." After the speeches, the rally participants marched to the government office district of Kasumigaseki and shouted anti-war slogans in front of the Diet (Parliament) building.
Note
1. Wikipedia defines standoff missiles as offensive weapons. Standoff weapons are missiles or bombs which may be launched from a distance sufficient to allow attacking personnel to evade the effect of the weapon or defensive fire from the target area. Typically, they are used against land- and sea-based targets in an offensive operation. The name is derived from their ability to engage the target while standing off outside the range at which the defenders are likely to engage the attacker. Typical stand-off weapons include cruise missiles, glide bombs and short-range ballistic missiles.
(With files from Japan Press Weekly, Japan Times and others)
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 5 - March 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53055.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca