Japan finally beefing up its defense forces

JAPAN has announced plans to acquire more Stealth fighters, long-range missiles, and other defense equipment over the next five years. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet also approved last Tuesday the refitting of two helicopter carriers into aircraft carriers capable of deploying US-made F-35B Stealth fighters. It will buy 147 F-35 planes, including 42 F-35Bs, over the next decade.

Behind Japan’s move to strengthen its defense forces is a history of pacifism that dates back to the end of World War II, when a defeated Japan adopted Article 9 and added it to its Constitution in 1947. Article 9 declared: “Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”

Japan had just surrendered to American forces in World War II and although it was to have its own government led by Prime Minister Kijuro Shidehara, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, was in Tokyo as chief of the occupation force. There would be Japan Self-Defense Forces, with land, sea, and air units but only as extensions of the national police force and only for national security.

After seven long decades, the Japanese government in 2015 approved a reinterpretation of Article 9 to allow Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to defend Japan’s allies. The next year, the National Diet, after long debates, enacted a law allowing the military to support allies overseas in circumstance where inaction would endanger “the lives and survival of the Japanese nation.” This would allow Japan’s military to participate in foreign conflicts “for collective self-defense” for allies.

Because of its pacifist Constitution and its resulting small armed forces, Japan has not been able to assert itself as forcefully as it wishes in its relationship with other countries. As the United States has gradually withdrawn its involvement in this part of the world, it has come to rely on Japan for assistance in maintaining peace and its interests in the region.

Japan today is one of the Philippines’ closest friends and allies. We hope its expansion of its defense forces after all these decades since its defeat in World War II will help to maintain the peace we have long enjoyed in our part of the world.