National security of Japan
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Concerning national security, Japan is in the unusual position of being a major world economic and political power, with an aggressive military tradition, resisting the development of strong armed forces. A military proscription is included as Article 9 of the 1947 constitution stating, "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." That article, along with the rest of the "Peace Constitution," retains strong government and citizen support and is interpreted as permitting the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), but prohibiting those forces from possessing nuclear weapons or other offensive arms or being deployed outside of Japan.
The SDF are under control of the civilian Defense Agency, subordinate to the prime minister. Although highly trained and fully qualified to perform the limited missions assigned to them, the SDF are small, understaffed, and underequipped for more extensive military operations. Its activities are confined to disaster relief and limited UN peacekeeping efforts.
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[edit] Defense policy
Japan's national defense policy has been based on maintaining the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with the United States, under which Japan assumed unilateral responsibility for its own internal security and the United States agreed to join in Japan's defense in the event that Japan or its territories were attacked. Although the size and capability of the SDF have always limited their role, until 1976 defense planning focused on developing forces adequate to deal with the conventional capabilities of potential regional adversaries. Beginning in 1976, government policy held that the SDF would be developed only to repel a small-scale, limited invasion and that the nation would depend on the United States to come to its aid in the event of a more serious incursion.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the buildup of military forces in the Soviet Far East, including the Kuriles, a group of islands to the north of Hokkaidō, which were occupied by the Soviet Union but claimed by Japan, led Japan to develop a program to modernize and improve the SDF in the 1980s, especially in air defense and antisubmarine warfare. In the early 1990s, the government was reevaluating its security policy based on reduced East-West tensions.
The Japanese government valued its close relations with the United States, and it remained dependent on the United States nuclear umbrella. Thus, it worked to facilitate military contacts and to support the United States diplomatically whenever possible. Both the government and the public, however, supported only limited increases in self-defense capability. National security, it is believed, is fostered by international diplomacy and economic aid as much as by military might.
[edit] Internal security
Main article: Public order and internal security in Japan
There are few critical issues for Japan's internal security. Conditions of public order compare favorably with those elsewhere in the world. The crime rate is remarkably low, kept that way by well-organized and efficient police forces assisted by general citizen cooperation and support. Potential challenges include social changes from immigration, plus the effects of domestic natural disasters such as earthquakes.
[edit] Strategic Considerations
[edit] Soviet Union / Russia
The expansion of military capabilities in the Soviet Far East beginning in 1970 was of grave concern to Japan, and Japanese authorities regularly monitored the activities of the Soviet Pacific Fleet and Soviet aircraft in the waters and air space around Japan. Despite a general lessening of world tensions and Soviet overtures for improved bilateral relations, in 1990 the Soviet Union still maintained a variety of units, including a division headquarters, on the southernmost Kuril Islands claimed by Japan as its Northern Territories. The Soviet Union also operated about 100 major surface war ships and 140 submarines (about seventy-five nuclear powered) out of Vladivostok and other Pacific ports. Soviet naval combatants passed through the Soya, Tsugaru, and Korea straits and sailed in the Sea of Japan, in the Sea of Okhotsk, and in Pacific Ocean areas adjacent to Japan. Japan also was within range of Tu-22M Backfire bombers and sea- and air-launched cruise missiles and tactical nuclear weapons based in the Soviet Union. However, with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Russia's preoccupation with domestic economic and political problems, Japan has become more concerned about Russia's contributing to a stepped-up global arms trade and nuclear proliferation than about any direct threat from Russia's military forces. Russian arms sales and oil supply to China are the greatest concern as of 2005, even though the territorial disputes remain unresolved.
[edit] Korea
An area of greater strategic interest to Japan is the Korean Peninsula. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) have remained implacable enemies since the Korean War, and the border between them is one of the most heavily fortified in the world. Stable and peaceful relations between the two Koreas are considered vital to Japan's interests: an outbreak of hostilities would involve United States forces stationed in Japan, and very likely Japan itself. This presents political and possibly security problems for the nation, in addition to interrupting its flourishing trade with South Korea. Although Japan maintains formal diplomatic relations only with South Korea, it has refused to contribute to that nation's defense, stating that any aid to a foreign military establishment would violate its own constitution.
North Korea's attempts to develop nuclear weapons coupled with its capability to target Japan with any weapon that it developed, is a matter of great concern to Japanese military strategists. In May 1993, North Korea test fired a Nodong-1 intermediate-range ballistic missile with a 1,000-kilometer range in the Sea of Japan, showing that it had the capability to strike Japan. The early 1990s indicated a melting of the ice, but this chance was passed and matters have worsened since North Korea declared to possess nuclear weapons in 2005.
Despite the currently peaceful relations between Japan and South Korea and that they are both U.S. allies, there is also a considerable potential for conflict between these countries as well. There is an ongoing territorial dispute over the island of Dokdo, claimed by both countries and garrisoned by South Korea. There were armed clashes near the island in 1950s that cost lives on both sides. Ultranationalists in both countries routinely stir up hostile memories between them. Recent years saw increasing alignment of foreign policies of South Korea and People's Republic of China, while Japan's foreign policy has increasingly aligned with United States, which may lead to a clash between these countries should a conflict between China and United States develop. The large and modern military of South Korea poses a much greater potential threat to Japan than even North Korean missiles, even though the possibility of open conflict between the two is today considered miniscule.
[edit] China
Events on the Asian mainland could also affect Japan. From the early 1970s, China possessed a nuclear force capable of striking Japan and a large standing army and substantial navy, even though the navy is geared primarily to coastal defense. Chinese internal unrest or China's conflicts with its neighbors could have an indirect impact on Japanese security and trade. China enjoyed strong economic growth in 1990, as a result strengthened its military budget. Tensions along the Taiwan strait have both eased and stiffened in the new millennium. In 2005, Japan has for the first time publicly declared the safety of Taiwan to be part of its strategic interests.
[edit] Trade routes
Japan is vitally dependent on maintaining access to regional and worldwide shipping lanes and fishing areas, but it is incapable of defending the sea routes on which it relied. Its energy supplies came primarily from Middle Eastern sources, and its tankers had to pass through the Indian Ocean, the Strait of Malacca, and the South China Sea, making them vulnerable to hostilities in Southeast Asia. Vulnerability to interception of oceangoing trade remained the country's greatest strategic weakness. Efforts to overcome this weakness, beginning with Prime Minister Suzuki Zenko's statement in May 1981 that Japan would attempt to defend its sea lines of communication (SLOC) to a distance of 1,000 nautical miles, met with controversy. Within the Defense Agency itself, some viewed a role for the MSDF in defending the SLOC as "unrealistic, unauthorized, and impossible." Even the strongest supporters of this program allowed that constitutional and other legal restrictions would limit active participation of the MSDF to cases where Japan was under direct attack. Japan could, however, provide surveillance assistance, intelligence sharing, and search-and-rescue support to United States naval forces.
[edit] Defense scenario
Japan's small size, its geographically concentrated industry, and the close proximity of potentially hostile powers all render the country vulnerable to a major nuclear strike. As for defense against conventional aggression, strategy is determined by the nation's elongated insular geography, its mountainous terrain, and the nearness of the Asian mainland. The terrain favors local defense against invasion by ground forces, but protection of the approximately 15,800-kilometer coastline of the four main islands would present unique problems in the event of a large-scale invasion. Potentially hostile aircraft and missile bases are so close that timely warning even by radar facilities might be difficult to obtain.
Maneuver space is limited to such an extent that ground defenses would have to be virtually in place at the onset of hostilities. No point of the country is more than 150 kilometers from the sea. Moreover, the straits separating Honshū from the other main islands restrict the rapid movement of troops from one island to another, even though all major islands are now connected by bridges and tunnels. Within each island, mountain barriers and narrow roads restrict troop and supply movements. The key strategic region is densely populated and highly industrialized central Honshū, particularly the area from Tokyo to Kobe (see Geography of Japan).
[edit] Terrorism
In the 1970s and 80s, North Korea abducted several Japanese citizens, and the Japanese Red Army staged several terrorist acts.
In 1995, the Aum Shinrikyo sect staged a Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.
There have been hints at Al-Qaeda underground activity in Japan, and the Deployment of Japanese troops to Iraq has made it a potential target. According to a recent AFP news report, a supposed member of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan has entered Japan in 2003 in order to possibly set up a branch of the group and supposedly recruit Muslims from either foreign Muslims living in Japan or Japanese Muslims. The man was recently arrested by police.
Recently, Japan plans to fingerprint foreigners entering Japan's seaports and airports, which have been met with controversy by certain law groups.
[edit] Reference
- This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain. - Japan
