Japan's more provocative military makes neighbors nervous

The International Herald Tribune ^ | July 22, 2007 | Norimitsu Onishi

[george76]

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam: To take part in annual exercises with the U.S. Air Force last month, Japan practiced dropping 500-pound live bombs on Farallon de Medinilla, a tiny island in the western Pacific about 240 kilometers north of here.

The pilots described dropping a live bomb for the first time, shouting "shack!" to signal a direct hit and seeing the fireball from aloft...

Dropping live bombs on land had long been considered too offensive, so much so that Japan does not have a single live-bombing range.

These fighter jets could perhaps fly to North Korea and take out some targets before returning home safely.

But from here in Micronesia to Iraq, Japan's military has been rapidly crossing out items from its list of can't do's.

The incremental changes - especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States - amount to the most significant transformation in the Japanese military since World War II, one that has brought it ever closer operationally to America's military while rattling nerves throughout northeast Asia.

In a little over half a decade, the Japanese military has carried out changes considered unthinkable a few years back. In the Indian Ocean, Japanese destroyers and refueling ships are helping the U.S. military fight in Afghanistan. In Iraq, Japanese planes are transporting cargo and U.S. soldiers to Baghdad from Kuwait.

Japan is acquiring weapons that blur the line between defensive and offensive. For the Guam bombing run, Tokyo deployed its newest fighter jets, the F-2, the first developed jointly by Japan and the United States.

Unlike its older jets, the F-2s were able to fly the 2,700 kilometers, or 1,700 miles, from northern Japan to Guam without refueling - a "straight shot," as the Japanese military said with pride.

[george76]

ht drudge

[george76]

Japan is interested in buying the F-22 Raptor...

[ANGGAPO]

I have a nerves stomach over this.

[Spacetrucker]

"Japan is interested in buying the F-22 Raptor..."

---

I'm not so sure that I object to this. Japan's role 'post' WWII has been diametrically opposed to it's pre-WWII imperialism. IMHO, Japan could do itself and us well by acquiring stronger capabilities.

[Mr. Mojo]

Selling F-22s to the Japanese would drive Beijing and Pyongyang positively bonkers.

I say do it.

[PAR35]

The Germans have cut back training at their base in New Mexico. Perhaps they could sublet to the Japanese.

[mgstarr]

I don’t want anyone else having the F-22 for a while. That said, I’m not terribly worried about Japan’s growing role in the region. We need a stronger Japan and India to counter China.

[af_vet_rr]

I have a nerves stomach over this.

Why? Japan has the same enemies that we do, and they have the same goals that we do. They have supported us and continue to support us in Afghanistan and Iraq even though they don't have to. Even though we've had our differences, since WwII they have been one of our staunchest allies.

You have to understand something. We have an ocean between us and North Korea and China. Japan doesn't have that luxury, and it's only now that the older generation is dying out, that they can expand their military to acknowledge that threat.

We also haven't had North Korean missile "tests" take place in the skies over the US. Japan has.

If you think that doesn't worry them a great deal, you'd be wrong. I've been to Japan many times over the past 30 years or so, both in military and civilian roles, and we pushed them to build up a bit more, to take a more active part in exercises with us during that time. Now that North Korea has "test fired" missiles over and near Japan, and now that China has ramped up their military, you are seeing a new Japan, that has come to terms with the fact that they have a crazy neighbor with nukes, and another neighbor that would like to rule the whole region.

It probably helps that the Japanese were extremely pissed over the North Koreans kidnapping Japanese citizens, some from Japan proper.

As far as military action, the only thing keeping North Korea in check is probably China (as nutty as he is, he knows without China, ROK and the US would tear his precious little People's Republic apart, probably with the help of the North Korean people who are tired of starving and making do with very little). The only thing keeping China in check is that they would lose economically.

[george76]

Japan today is America's biggest partner in developing and financing a missile defense shield in Asia. Some Japanese ground and air force commands are also moving inside U.S. bases in Japan so that the two forces will become, in military jargon, "interoperable."

.

[wastedyears]

Some of us say do it, but what if they were to get shot down? Or China gets some agents to infiltrate to look at them first-hand?

I’m all for our allies having the best stuff available, but there are some things we shouldn’t sell.

[george76]

In Guam, U.S. and Japanese pilots simulated intercepts and air-to-air combat over two weeks...

.

[GBA]

Do it in about a decade or so. We are barely fielding our newest, most state of the art weapon system and already people want to give its secrets away. I still haven’t forgiven Toshiba, nor have I forgotten.

[af_vet_rr]

The Germans have cut back training at their base in New Mexico. Perhaps they could sublet to the Japanese.

Why try in New Mexico when you can get the real thing in Afghanistan. A couple of weeks ago, the German Constitutional Court (forgot the name, it's fancy), ruled that the German government can keep their reconnaissance Tornados in Afghanistan. They ruled they can only be used to do reconnaissance, but that will probably change depending on the debate that pops up in October about Germany's NATO commitment.

Their NATO stuff is really screwy - the German government wants more active troops and aircraft in Afghanistan, but they have this huge Constitutional and psychological hang-up about deploying German forces outside of Europe. I kind of understand, it's similar to how the Japanese were for many decades, part embarassment, part shame, part fear.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Mitsubishi F-2

[Seruzawa]

New Japanese message to North Korea: All your keesters are belong to us.

[Mr. Mojo]

Agreed. Waiting a few years seems like the reasonable thing to do.

[elmer fudd]

The problem with selling them the F22 isn’t that they’re a potential threat that might return to their imperialist roots, it’s that they don’t keep tight enough security on their technology. Believe me, Japanese society today is in no condition to revive the GEACPS, they’re too old and too pacifistic and they don’t have much of a warrior spirit anymore.

[VOA]

China nervous?
Russia nervous?
North Korea nervous?

It’s possible this is “good news day”.

[hermgem]

Japanese are good friends to us.
To stay helpless would be suicidal for them, and that is not a course the Japanese intend to pursue.
Looking over to Europe there very few that welcome and support the U.S. yet it is there that Ronald Reagan, against Democrat's rants, held firm, stood up, and placed nuclear weapons right up at the East German border where thousands of Russian tanks and military were stationed ready to march and roll over the west.

[Zionist Conspirator]

There's good and there's bad about this. On the one hand, we let Germany rearm a long time ago (the Russians armed their puppets in the East and we armed the West), and we do truly need something to counter China and North Korea (two countries which represent a much more direct threat to Japan than to us, as one poster as said).

On the other, they've never 'fessed up to what they did in the War like the Germans were forced to. There are still fanatical nationalist elements in Japan, and no way do I want that unleashed upon the world again.