Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 9 - 15 [POLITICS]

SDF may attack enemy jointly with US with right to collective self-defense: Kasai

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira in a Diet committee meeting on July 14 said that a recent Cabinet decision on the collective self-defense right may allow the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to take part in U.S. military operations.

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo claims that the SDF will not participate in military activities such as the invasion of other countries with the use of air strikes.

JCP Kasai said that the Air SDF has been carrying out joint military training exercises with the U.S. forces bombing enemy countries.

The U.S. Air Force every year holds multinational military drills called Red Flag Alaska (RFA) in Alaska with Japan and other allies. This year, 310 ASDF members joined the training exercises in June.

Kasai pointed to the fact that in the military training exercises, SDF F15 jets served as escort fighters for U.S. B52 bombers flying over enemy territory.

What the ASDF did during RFA would become reality with the use of the collective self-defense right if the government makes a decision based on the conditions for the use of armed forces abroad, Kasai stressed.

He criticized the Cabinet decision for seeking to turn Japan into a country waging wars abroad and demanded the withdrawal of the decision.

Past related article:
> Japan’s fighter jets joined US military drills to bomb other nations [May 31, 2014]