Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 April 1 - 7 [POLITICS]

Defense Ministry secretly develops blueprint for defense against China

The Defense Ministry drew up a blueprint for Japan-U.S. joint operations based on the assumption that China is a possible enemy, Japanese Communist Party parliamentarian Kokuta Keiji on April 1 revealed at a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee meeting.

In the meeting, Kokuta referred to the ministry’s internal document titled, “Principles in defense against China”, which the Joint Staff Office of the Defense Ministry compiled in July 2012.

The document points out that Japan needs to build up its defense capability to cope with China’s ambitious moves near Japan’s territorial waters. It includes detailed operations of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military in times of emergency and their joint deterrence ambitions.

To deal with a possible emergency situation, the document shows plans to dispatch SDF troops to islands near Okinawa from the Japanese mainland, conduct ground operations, and use the ballistic missile defense system. As deterrence measures, it calls for patrol activities of the SDF in the South China Sea, the western Pacific, and the Indian Ocean.

JCP Kokuta said that dispatching Japan’s troops to the South China Sea is tantamount to intervention in territorial disputes involving China and Southeast Asian countries and stressed that it increases tensions between Japan and China.

State Minister of Defense Sato Akira said, “It is a matter of course that the state should explore various possibilities.”