FOCUS: Japanese defense issues, mired in scandal, face tests as Obama enters

TOKYO, Dec. 28 Kyodo - Another year has gone in which the Defense Ministry and the Self-Defense Forces
have been dragging their feet amid a series of scandals and misdeeds involving
their personnel.
But as they enter 2009 -- and the new U.S. administration led by Barack Obama
enters the scene -- they face uncertainties over how the new U.S. leader will
approach Japan-U.S. security relations.
Among the challenges they may face is a possible ground mission in Afghanistan,
which Obama, the incoming commander in chief of U.S. forces, says he will focus
on in the ''war on terror.''
A U.S. ally, Japan has forces committed only to a refueling mission in the
Indian Ocean as part of the antiterrorism campaign, now that it has ended its
Iraq mission involving air and ground defense forces.
The possible Afghan deployment presents Tokyo with a dilemma given the need to
ensure the safety of SDF personnel and unresolved questions over the legality
of SDF involvement in the antiterrorism campaign under the war-renouncing
Constitution, especially if it may entail combat.
''I can't deny the possibility of (the SDF) getting involved in combat
activities (in Afghanistan). That is problematic under the Constitution,''
Prime Minister Taro Aso said in a Diet session in October.
The Constitution also places legal restrictions on SDF activities, such as
limits on the use of weapons overseas.
Defense officials say Afghanistan is far more dangerous than Iraq, where
Japanese ground and air troops were deployed for nearly five years without a
single loss of life, and fear that potential casualties would shake both SDF
personnel and the Japanese people.
Still, ''We cannot remain idle for so long without playing any new role,''
while Washington keeps the pressure on Tokyo to do more, a senior ministry
official said on condition of anonymity.
As piracy activities intensified in waters off Somalia, concerns grew over the
safe passage of commercial ships in the region, where several vessels related
to Japan have fallen victim to pirates this year.
Japan soon began considering the utilization of SDF ships or patrol aircraft to
join warships from other countries, including those from the United States and
several countries from the European Union, to protect ships from bandits in the
waters.
There has been a temporary lull in the move, however, after government
officials and lawmakers began favoring the passage of a general law to enable
such an overseas dispatch.
The enactment of such a law remains uncertain given the logjam in the
opposition-controlled House of Councillors, whereas a special law that would
limit the area of operations might be enacted more easily.
China's recent dispatch of warships to the region to combat pirates in concert
with other countries added to concerns among defense officials and politicians
that Japan may be left outside the circle.
''Now is the time to send the SDF. If we fail to do so by the end of January,
the momentum will be lost,'' said the same senior official, who favors a
special law for the mission.
In the past week or so, government officials and lawmakers have begun warming
to the idea of applying existing maritime policing rules under the SDF law to
the mission, if only on the grounds that it would be quicker to dispatch the
forces.
A top defense official notes, however, that problems abound with such a solution.
''All the SDF can do (under the rules) is to protect Japanese ships. There are
also limits on the use of weapons, but will that be all right? We have no
choice but to be negative'' about a dispatch under the rules, he said on
condition of anonymity.
Maritime policing, which was first applied in 1999 against North Korean spy
ships in Japanese territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, also assumes
operations in waters around Japan, not waters thousands of miles away.
A relative lack of interest in the piracy issue among the Japanese people does
not seem to have helped the drive at a time when economic issues remain the
topic of the day.
Meanwhile, the ministry and the SDF were put on the defensive over the
robustness of civilian control of the forces due to a controversy involving
former Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Gen. Toshio Tamogami.
In an essay, the outspoken Tamogami argued that Japan was a benevolent colonial
ruler and not an aggressor in other Asian countries, sparking an instant uproar
that cost him the job of top ASDF officer.
As head of an academy for ranking officers, Tamogami had also started a course
on ''views on history and the nation'' in 2003 and invited some lecturers who
serve as executives of a group that edited a history textbook whitewashing
Japan's militaristic past.
The scandal came at a sensitive moment for the ministry as it eyes
strengthening the authority of ranking officers over SDF operations and
weakening that of civilian bureaucrats in ministry reforms.
Critics fear that the Tamogami case has cast a cloud over the assumption of a
government panel report on which the reform plans were based. The report,
issued in July, claims that ''civilian control has been nearly internalized by
the SDF.''
''If authority over SDF operations is transferred from the suit-clad group to
the uniform-wearing group, there will be no more civilian control,'' opposition
Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima recently told reporters,
referring to bureaucrats and officers.
On Dec. 23, the Defense Ministry unveiled its basic policy on the ministry
reform but ended up toeing the line recommended by the panel report, which was
issued before the Tamogami case surfaced.
==Kyodo
2008-12-28 17:44:03