Japan is moving forward with a plan to develop missiles capable of striking North Korea, breaking from the country’s post-World War II policy of only having defensive weapons.
Lawmakers from Japan’s ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), approved a proposal to develop the missiles on Wednesday. Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the LDP put forward the plan before leaving office in September.
Under the 1947 Japanese constitution put in place by US occupying forces, Tokyo is only allowed to take military action in self-defense. Abe argued that having the ability to strike missile systems inside North Korea and China as a preemptive strike is necessary for self-defense.
While Abe is out of office, his plan and his party are here to stay. Abe was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga, who served under Abe as his chief cabinet secretary from 2012 to 2020.
The plan to develop offensive missiles is the second postwar norm Japan is preparing to break. In November, Japan and Australia reached an agreement on a new military pact. If approved by Tokyo’s parliament, it will mark the first time in 60 years that Japan allows another foreign military besides the US on its soil.
The US celebrated the defense agreement reached between Japan and Australia. Washington has been looking to build alliances in Asia to counter China. The US, Australia, Japan, and India make up the informal alliance known as the Quad. Last month, the four countries held military drills together for the first time in over a decade, a clear message to Beijing.
Why must the US be a member of the Quad? If a war breaks out, leave the US out of it.
Japan will call the ability to hit back “defensive” and pretend it is not a change of policy.
This is of a kind with calling its Navy its Maritime Self Defense Force.
The underlying issue is whether Japan’s right wingers can turn Japan back toward being more warlike. So far, Japan’s population seems resolutely against that, from the Emperor on down.
They’ve always intrigued for their old ways, but they don’t have the numbers to carry their nation into any real warfare.
Yet.
The US probably wants another “ally” to help it in US wars.
If a war broke out in that part of the world, it’d destroy a lot of happy lives. But if the US fully exits the region, Japan will need to defend itself… from China. Switzerland also has the ability to defend itself.
I think South Korea is at least as afraid of Japan as it is of China, and afraid of both far more than of its cousins in the North.
If the US left, I think we’d see the Koreans solve their China and Japan problems with some sort of loose confederation or federation, a genuine “two systems” solution aimed at both the erstwhile allies and enemies of the US.
In that arrangement, the South would see the North’s nuclear weapons as good for the South’s defense too.
That would be a return to ancient Korean solutions to their problem of living between China and Japan.
Good solution maybe. SK seems especially angry at Japan.
I thought North Korea’s missiles were the “defensive” ones??