Japan’s Asahi Shimbun (via Korea’s KBS TV) reported Thursday that a council headed by the director of Japan’s Self Defense Agency is actively considering plans to obtain the capacity to attack ballistic missile bases in other countries.
According to the report, the council plans to continue relying on the U.S. military to deal with ballistic missiles, but it also decided to consider plans to equip itself with the capacity to hit enemy missile bases to prevent invasions before they materialize.
More specifically, the council is considering precision-guided missiles, which Japan decided to acquire last year, as well as possibly Harpoon 2 missiles, Tomahawks or a light aircraft carrier.
As obtaining the capacity to hit missile bases in other countries would deviate greatly from the existing Japanese defense policy in which the nation has sworn off acquiring the capacity to attack other nations (leaving that job to the U.S. military), the Asahi story is expected to spark quite a stir diplomatically.
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over at the atimes is an article about the growing miltary ties between japan and the us. the paper says china is a threat to both nations in that china may replace the us as a superpower in the region and perhaps the world while moving japan aside as the main actor in asia. as i read this i started to wonder: what’s wrong with a china as the main actor in asia? why is that not desirable? is it because of china’s past? is it because of mao? what’s the big deal here?
ps though i get hot at talk about china invading nk, i know the chinese won’t be doing that; they’re sensible.
Let’s start with the Sino-Korean dispute about Koguryo… they’re definitely not sensible, Mr. Nulji Maripkan. Haven’t you changed your internet ID because of the Chinese NE Asia history distortion?
Do the words giant communist dictatorship ring a bell?
Anyways, everyone likes the current security arrangement, particularly those at the top of the status quo(namely Japan and the United States). No one voluntarily relinquishes power and influence, which is why you see a lot of China menace stories stemming from the United States and Japan. The same sort of phenomenon happened nearly 2 decades ago in the U.S., when there was a big scare that Japan would somehow displace the United States as the major power.
In addition to “Communist Dictatorship”, one could add hyper-nationalist, a sense of ultra-superiority that dwarfs any similar American attitudes, and a stance of aggressive expansionism.
Ask a Tibetan what the deal is.
The new Nipponese military doctrine: preemptive imperial retaliation.
More power to the Japanese on this one. Their interests are much more convergent with U.S. interests than South Korea’s. Finally a real ally in this part of the world.
Speaking of Japan Mr. Marmot, the journal Japan Focus has a series on the Koreas that includes everyone’s favorite deluded lefty Bruce Cuming (http://japanfocus.org/187.html) and Selig Harrision (http://japanfocus.org/186.html) et al.
I just read the original article.
http://www.asahi.com/politics/update/0114/003.html
There is no description of this ->”obtain the capacity to attack ballistic missile bases in other countries.”
Do S.Korean media fabricate foreign news often?
With respect to the first four comments on this post, if any of you are Japanese speakers, I suggest having a look at Peter Tasker’s “On Japan” column in the January 12th issue of Newsweek Japan. (You can find it here. Just click on the “On Japan” link in the left menu.)
For everyone else (and I’m sorry I don’t have time to translate the article in its entirety), here’s a small taste of what Tasker has to say on China:
During the time from the end of the war until now, while Japan has been a peaceful, democratic country, China has sent its military into Korea, India, Vietnam, Tibet, and other neighboring countries. Even now they threaten Taiwan with force and are supporting a kingdom of lies, North Korea.
China is using its domestic market and rapid economic growth as a trump card, seeking the lifting of the ban on arms exports put in place by the EU following the Tiananmen Square incident. If this is successful, in addition to their Russian made aircraft carriers, they will be able to maintain French Mirage fighter jets and obtain German diesel-electric propelled stealth submarines.
If this is where things stand at the beginning of 2005, how will they look in 2015 when everyone is saying China??s economy will be twice as large?
These comments makes ME look like a sinophile. (actually I consider myself to be a sinophile, but I digress) First of all, Korean war was started primarily due to general stupidity and miscommunications. I think almost every nation involved, USSR, USA, NK, SK, China made blunder after blunder in starting a completely useless that made zero changes after the war except massive number of deaths. As much as I object to CCP’s involvement in the Korean War, you can’t hardly claim that was due to Imperialistic ambitions by Mao Ze Dong. Secondly, countries that share a lot of borders with unstable countries, generally DO get into more military conficts. United States borders Canada and Mexico, and even here, in the long history of US, we invaded Canada twice (and lost, how humiliating!) and decided to carve out Mexico and call it “New Mexico.” (and now to the utter horror by Americans, we are becoming more and more latinized) Japan, who doesn’t share borders with anybody, went out of its way paddling across the East Sea with bayonets. But forget the West for a moment. Almost every nation in Africa that borders unstable nations were forced into armed conflicts. Same is true for Central Asian countries. We cry “Tibet!” “Tibet!” and righteously so. But when’s the last time we heard Richard Gere scream, “Chechnya!” “Chechnya!” We do hear a lot about “Iraq!” “Iraq!” though.
Japan HAS to militarize just like China HAS to as well. Chinese military, as often quoted, is supposed to be the largest military museum in the world. If they decide to upgrade from Ox-driven cannons(I exaggerate) to a truck driven artillery, is this really so unreasonable? Japanese military also have to reflect the changing nature of the world. In another 2 decades, all those Hirohito-lovin’ old geezers should be dead and turned into white powder. Japanese army should also reflect this change.
I hope people stop pitting Japan vs China, because inevitably, every time these wankers decide to kill each other, they wind up killing only the Koreans in the middle.
‘japan HAS to militarize just as china HAS to miltirize…’
and sk HAS to militarize as well for obvious reasons. more later…
Nulji,
Well SK IS militaring too. But I wonder if MDP or Uridang had power earlier, what would have happened to KDXIII program or the Supersonic trainer program or even the F-15Ks. They probably would have axed it so they can build a nice capital in Taejun. Heck, it was just yesterday’s news that No Moo Hyun cut back ROK personnel by around 40,000. The only Korea that is really interested in militarizing is North Korea.
Demilitarizing it’s forces AND severing alliance with United States… One has to wonder why everyone gets all uptight when we call Uridang, Rodongdang.
virtual, i don’t support no moo hyon who is noh mu hae(???????) to me.
PROOF OF AMERICAN DISDAIN FOR KOREANS:
take a look at an editorial at the nyt.com called out of iraq. it laments the ukraine’s departure:
‘it’s contingent was the fith largest in iraq (after the us, britain, italy, and poland…)
koreans should understand that americans will never respect them unless they make out with the collective american asshole like the japanese do. shame on the nyt.
That was an unforgivable mistake (I guess) by the NYT, which I hope they will correct. If it was not a mistake, I can only venture a wild guess that they treat Zayitun forces differently because they are out of the war zone. These days the New York Times has much disdain for the Unitd States, too.
nulji - i noticed that too… email the new york times with a correction, im too lazy.
That Peter Tasker fellow sounds like an idiot. An amusing article built on half-truths, no context, and out and out factual errors in that one translated snippet alone. Honestly, I don’t see how any well read individual could take him seriously.