The Marmot’s Hole

Michael Richardson has a pretty good piece, reprinted in the Korea Herald, on the major changes underway in Japanese defense policy. Definitely a must read, and I suggest you look at it before it gets lost in the KH’s pay-per-view archives. Anyway, here’s a little tidbit:

Japan’s move to acquire a missile shield is particularly significant and is premised on a major shift in its defense policy. During and even after the Cold War, the main threat was perceived to come from a large-scale invasion of the Japanese home islands by the Soviet Union or China.

Now the chief threat is seen to be terrorism and missile strikes, most immediately from North Korea.

This was set out for the first time in August in Japan’s 2003 White Paper on Defense. It noted that the spread of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the hands of dictators, and perhaps in future of terrorists as well, had completely changed existing concepts of war and defense. The White Paper said that Japan must be able to respond, quickly and effectively, to these new types of threats.