Japan Press Weekly

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2013 November 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

Right to collective self-defense contradicts US needs: ex-gov’t official

A scholar and a former government official engaged in a heated debate over whether Japan should be able to exercise the right to collective self-defense on November 12 at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

They are Kitaoka Shin’ichi, a political scholar who heads the Abe Cabinet’s panel on the right to collective self-defense, and Yanagisawa Kyoji, former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary who has raised concerns over the move to give such a right to Japan.

Kitaoka, pointing to China’s rapid development of military capability, stressed the need to enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense and strengthen its military cooperation with the U.S.

Yanagisawa criticized Kitaoka’s argument as failing to accurately reflect the U.S. position. “The Obama administration does not designate China as its enemy. It rather wants to maintain a power balance with it,” he said, and expressed his concern that the Abe Cabinet’s hardline stance toward China could lead to a military clash.

Regarding the Self-Defense Forces’ overseas operations, Yanagisawa stated that since 30% of operational SDF ships are already engaged in anti-piracy operations off Somalia, only around 10 vessels are capable of operating in waters close to Japan. He said, “For expanding overseas activities Japan needs to double the number of warships, but that is financially impossible.”

Past related articles:
> Japan can use right to collective self-defense in case of ‘serious impact’: gov’t panel chief [November 7, 2013]
> Intelligence assessments influenced by policy makers: former cabinet official (November 1, 2013)