Stop increase in military budget on FY 2010 budget

Japan Press Weekly

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Stop increase in military budget on FY 2010 budget

Akahata editorial

The government is expected to adopt the benchmark for compiling the budget request for FY 2010 on July 1. The military budget will be the focus of attention since the "basic economic and financial policy for 2009", approved by the government recently, calls for a budget that places greater emphasis on the need to spend more for military purposes. We must not allow any upward turn in military spending in the budget for the next fiscal year.

Prioritizing the Japan-U.S. military alliance

The government basic economic and fiscal policy for FY 2009 includes an item on "national defense". Citing North Korea's recent nuclear test, it states that Japan should respond to "the regional security environment which is getting severer than ever", thus suggesting that the country should increase its military budget.

North Korea's nuclear test is an outrageous act that violates U.N. Security Council resolutions and the agreement reached at the Six-Party Talks calling for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

However, if Japan increases its military budget using these circumstances as the pretext, it will be lead to an arms buildup that will pave the way for further militarization instead of contributing to solving issues peacefully through diplomacy.

UN Security Council Resolution 1874 makes it clear that the response to North Korea's nuclear test should be non-military in conformity with Article 41 of the U.N Charter. The resolution expresses, "its commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation and welcomes efforts by Council members as well as other Member States to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue and to refrain from any actions that might aggravate tensions."

It is absurd for Japan to seek a military solution to the recent developments in North Korea.

The Japanese government is only using the North Korean question as a pretext for increasing its military budget. The true intention is to promote the buildup of the Self-Defense Forces to further fortify the Japan-U.S. military alliance.

The United States says that it obtained Japan's pomise to pay a total of three trillion yen for the planned realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, which includes the cost for constructing a new U.S. base in Okinawa and U.S. military facilities in Guam. This makes it inevitable for Japan to increase its military budget.

Overseas dispatches of SDF units are also contributing to increasing the military budget. Even after Japan withdrew SDF units from Iraq, it continues supplying oil for U.S. and its other allies in the Indian Ocean. It began to send units to the sea area off Somalia as part of "anti-piracy operation" and is planning to send units to Afghanistan.

In giving a concrete shape to the nation's basic space program, which is designed to promote the use of space for military purposes, it will be unavoidable for Japan to increase the military budget. If the program covers the development and possession of spy satellites that are necessary for military operations abroad as well as the development and possession of early-warning satellites to detect and track enemy ballistic missiles, there will be no ceiling imposed on the military budget.

The government is now working on a review of the defense program outline for a new 10-year military buildup, by the end of 2009. At the meeting of the Council on National Security and Defense, an advisory panel to Prime Minister Aso Taro, the main argument is that Japan should be proactive in firmly maintaining the Japan-U.S alliance.

The defense policy study subcommittee of the Liberal Democratic Party National Defense Division proposed to the government that an urgent review be made to ensure necessary levels in quantity and quality for the Self-Defense Forces to meet the new defense program outline.

It is obvious that an increase in the military budget in compiling the FY 2010 national budget would lead to turning Japan into a country that wages wars abroad by invoking the Japan-U.S. military alliance as absolute.

Redirect funds to defending living conditions and welfare services

In adopting the 2009 basic economic and fiscal policy, the government had to declare that there will be no cutbacks in social services for FY 2009 to avert criticisms that the government is annually slashing spending on social services.

What is most important is to substantially reduce the military budget and reallocate the money for the people's livelihoods and welfare. This will also enable Japan to work for peace in the world through diplomatic channels.

- Akahata, June 29, 2009