Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2013 July 10 - 16 [US FORCES]

Defense White Paper endorses Osprey deployment and new US base in Okinawa

The FY2013 White Paper on Defense the Abe Cabinet approved on July 9 endorses both the deployment of U.S. MV-22 Ospreys to Okinawa and the construction of a new U.S. military base at Henoko in Okinawa’s Nago City as a replacement for the U.S. Futenma base.

This is the first defense white paper released under the second Abe government.

The official document on Japan’s defense devotes two pages to detail the Osprey deployment and concludes that it greatly contributes to deterrent capabilities and to regional peace and stability, ignoring Okinawans and all 41 municipal heads in Okinawa calling for termination to the Osprey deployment.

The paper maintains that flight training exercises involving the MV-22s are conducted in full compliance with the Japan-U.S. agreement, and that the aircraft are safe.

In regard to 318 flights reported to have violated the bilateral agreement last October and November, the Okinawa prefectural government asked the state for confirmation. The Ministry of Defense promised the Okinawan prefectural government to respond to the survey results, but Okinawa is still waiting for a state answer.

Asked by reporters about this at a press conference on July 9, Defense Minister Onodera Itsunori declined to say when the central government will give the answer to Okinawa.

Regarding China, the defense white paper places emphasis on perceiving China as a threat by using severer terms than ever before in its description of the incident in which a Chinese naval vessel directed its radar at a Japanese destroyer in January near the Senkaku Islands.

The annual report on national defense denounces China for engaging in dangerous behavior which could cause an unexpected event incompatible with international law.

The paper also carries a column in which Prime Minister Abe calls for discussions regarding Japan’s right to possess the capability to attack enemy bases and the need to create a marine force capable of rapid deployment.