Japan Press Weekly

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2022 December 14 - 20 [POLITICS]

Amid fierce protests, Cabinet approves revision of 3 key documents in order to pave way for Japan’s enemy base strikes

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on December 16 approved revision of three key national security documents (the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Program Guidelines, and the Mid-Term Defense Program), which leads to the abandonment of the “exclusively defensive defense” policy, postwar Japan’s fundamental security principle.

The three documents allow Japan’s possession of an enemy-base strike (counterforce) capability which successive governments have recognized as unconstitutional. The documents state that Japan can attack enemy bases as an exercise of its collective self-defense right upon a U.S. request, even if Japan does not come under attack, in collaboration with the U.S. military. The documents indicate a plan to equip Japan with a huge amount of missiles, including U.S. Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, in order to perform enemy base strikes.

PM Kishida at a press conference in the Prime Minister’s Office said that in line with new security strategies published in the three documents, the government will spend a total of 43 trillion yen over the next five years to drastically enhance Japan’s defense capability. As measures to secure the financial resources to do this, he mentioned the imposition of higher taxes on the general public. He also indicated his intent to use a portion of tax revenues aimed at helping rebuild the 2011 disaster-hit Tohoku region for the huge military buildup.

Later in the day, Japanese Communist Party lawmakers and party members took to the streets in many places throughout the nation to protest against the Cabinet decision and increase public support for the JCP demand that the government not place priority on the military before people’s livelihoods.

In Tokyo, at a street speech rally held near Shinjuku Station, JCP Chair Shii Kazuo pointed out that the three documents will completely abandon the constitutional principle of “exclusively defensive defense” and fundamentally turn Japan into an offensive war-fighting nation. He criticized the Kishida government for significantly changing the course of Japan with this Cabinet decision without calling for a vote by the public in regard to this course change. He said that the Kishida administration’s way of politics harms democracy, and expressed his determination to firmly oppose the proposed huge military buildup and push the government to withdraw the Cabinet decision without delay.

A 22-year-old university sophomore female student who happened to pass by the JCP speech rally said, “I think the present government doesn’t care about the general public. What the government should focus on now is not a military buildup. I want the government to spend more for education.”

On this day in the early-morning hours, 300 concerned citizens assembled in front of the Prime Minister’s Office building to demand that the Kishida Cabinet not approve the three documents, shouting in chorus, “Step down the Kishida administration immediately!”

Past related article:
> Nationwide action held to oppose Kishida gov’t’s huge military buildup and constitutional revision [December 9, 2022]