Wartime legislation will cause new tension in Asia -- Akahata editorial, January 15, 2002

Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro has expressed his intention to set out to work on wartime legislation despite it being a controversial issue. Clearly, he is trying to take advantage of the sinking of an "unidentified ship" to get such legislation enacted.

The stated aim is to deal with contingencies, but what he has in mind is wartime legislation that will restrict individual rights protected by law and allow the government to mobilize the people to war.

The Liberal Democratic Party secretary general said, "If we miss this opportunity, we will have to wait for years." The LDP is using the mystery ship incident as a pretext to override the people's strong opposition to wartime legislation.

Mystery ship as pretext

In the mystery ship incident off the coast of Amami Oshima last December, a patrol boat of the Japan Coast Guard fired shots into the air around an unidentified ship in China's exclusive economic waters because the ship ignored the coast guard boat's order to stop. The government must make public the details of the incident and the legality of the coast guard action, in terms of domestic and international laws.

The Koizumi Cabinet is trying to wrongly deal with the question of coastal security and policing, which come within the coast guard jurisdiction, as a military question. By arguing for the need for Japan's Self-Defense Forces to use force against suspicious ships even if such ships appear outside of Japanese territorial waters, the government wants to use the recent incident as a springboard to get wartime legislation enacted.

Already enacted is the law to respond to situations in areas surrounding Japan, which is based on the Japan-U.S. Defense Cooperation Guidelines under which Japan is to support U.S, forces taking action in Asia. Using the simultaneous terrorist attacks on the United States as a pretext, the Koizumi Cabinet sent the SDF abroad to take part in the U.S. war.

In the mystery ship incident, a coast guard patrol boat fired at and sank a suspicious ship in China's exclusive economic waters. This has increased the concern of Asian countries about Japan becoming a military menace by sending its forces abroad.

If Japan enacts a law allowing the SDF to use force against suspicious ships and fight a war, tension with Asian countries will heighten at once. Singapore's Straits Times of January 13 reported that LDP legislators want to expand the definition of self-defense, giving the military more freedom to act, with spying as a pretext.

The thing to note is that wartime legislation is aimed at enabling Japan's SDF to support U.S. military action in Asia as part of U.S. forces in war.

In fact, Prime Minister Koizumi in his speeches during his tour of Asian countries stressed the U.S. role as indispensable.

U.S. President George W. Bush on the one hand publicly spoke of his intention to expand the war against Afghanistan into Iraq and other countries, in reference to the issue of inspection of weapons of mass destruction; on the other hand he said that North Korea's acceptance of an inspection of weapons of mass destruction is conditional to U.S.-North Korea consultative talks.

The U.S. Bush administration's unilateralism in pursuit of so-called national interests, as shown by the recent U.S. moves in regard to missile defense and new nuclear development, is drawing criticism from Asian countries as being conducive to creating new tension.

What we cannot overlook is that Japan, which constitutionally renounced war, is moving to establish a system that will allow Japan to support U.S. military activities in Asia and even to mobilize the people to U.S. wars.

Adverse current toward peace

The Liberal Democratic Party and some other parties have promoted wartime legislation ostensibly to prepare for possible outside attacks that would turn Japan into a battlefield.

But, even the Defense Agency director general had to admit in the Diet that it is hardly probable that any country will attack Japan in present-day Asia.

Japanese and other Asian peoples commonly desire that Asia won't see a situation that needs military measures.

By taking advantage of the "unidentified ship" incident, the Koizumi Cabinet is giving priority to establishing military readiness under wartime legislation. This is nothing but an attempt to go against the world current toward peace by causing a new tension in Asia. (end)