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Japan Considers Getting Offensive
The American Interest ^ | July 26, 2013 | Walter Russell Mead

Posted on 07/27/2013 10:14:00 AM PDT by JerseyanExile

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A new defense paper published by Japan’s government today urges Tokyo to set up a rapid marine deployment force to counter threats to its territory and acquire offensive weapons, like surveillance drones and missiles that could strike enemy bases. Shinzo Abe’s government is clearly trucking on with plans to revamp Japan’s military and even considering changing the pacifist constitution, under which some of these new capabilities are questionable.

The paper pushes the limits of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which states, “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….[L]and, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” The paper says that Japan has the right to launch preemptive attacks if threatened and urges Tokyo to establish comprehensive defense measures in order to protect Japan’s distant islands from attack.

“It would be a big deal, a fundamental change in our defense philosophy,” a security studies professor told the New York Times. It will surely annoy China and other neighbors who resent Japan’s new aggressive foreign policy.

One group of countries it probably won’t annoy is in Southeast Asia. Prime Minister Abe is currently in Singapore, where he met with ASEAN leaders (and Vice President Biden) and spoke of deepening Japan’s economic and security ties with its neighbors to the south. Japanese companies’ investment in Southeast Asia has exploded this year as China has become a less attractive business partner. Abe also vowed to join the Philippines to promote stability in East and Southeast Asia.

China is facing a changing Asian security landscape with Japan, which is now led by a popular, hawkish prime minister; building up its military for the first time in a decade; and shoring up alliances, partly as a result of Chinese aggression in territorial disputes and aggressive posturing by the Norks. No wonder Beijing publicly pushed Pyongyang to reduce tension in the region by coming to the negotiation table earlier today. The last thing China wants is to give Japan and other neighbors a reason to rearm and the United States a justification to continue to be the region’s most dominant military force.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asia; china; japanesemilitary; southeastasia

1 posted on 07/27/2013 10:14:00 AM PDT by JerseyanExile
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To: JerseyanExile

Those ‘trade with China’ dividends just keep on popping up.

About 70 years of Japan being a domestically focused security concern, and that’s about to be tossed because China isn’t capable of living in the 21st century with everyone as a good neighbor.

Those who pushed Free Trade with China, should be taken out and shot.


2 posted on 07/27/2013 10:18:22 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Kill the bill... Begin enforcing our current laws, signed by President Ronald Reagan.)
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To: JerseyanExile

Let Japan have weapons on the condition that they only be in form of giant robot mechs.....


3 posted on 07/27/2013 10:21:39 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: DoughtyOne

Start with Bill Clinton.


4 posted on 07/27/2013 10:21:57 AM PDT by NoKoolAidforMe (I'm clinging to my God and my guns. You can keep the change.)
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To: NoKoolAidforMe

I agree. He’s certainly not alone in that though. Republicans have been just as complicit in this death march.


5 posted on 07/27/2013 10:24:54 AM PDT by DoughtyOne (Kill the bill... Begin enforcing our current laws, signed by President Ronald Reagan.)
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To: DoughtyOne
Republicans have been just as complicit in this death march.

Including a certain former President that was once our Ambassador to China.

6 posted on 07/27/2013 10:25:29 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: DoughtyOne
There is a reason why countries who were World War II enemies of Japan (Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, etc.) now openly welcome and invite Japan to take a more aggressive military posture. That reason is because they see Japan as a more reliable ally against China than the United States.
7 posted on 07/27/2013 10:32:08 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Vigilanteman

There are no permanent allies or enemies, only permanent interests.


8 posted on 07/27/2013 10:32:53 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: DoughtyOne

“Those who pushed Free Trade with China, should be taken out and shot.”

Hey it’s all for the bizzness ya know ...


9 posted on 07/27/2013 10:43:29 AM PDT by SgtBilko
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To: JerseyanExile

I ain’t going this time!


10 posted on 07/27/2013 10:47:04 AM PDT by ANGGAPO (Layte Gulf Beach Club)
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To: JerseyanExile
TODAY, Japan uses more adult diapers than baby diapers.

That's all you need to know to predict the future of Japan.

11 posted on 07/27/2013 10:49:06 AM PDT by blam
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To: Vigilanteman
Yep, we can thank BOzo for that.
12 posted on 07/27/2013 10:49:29 AM PDT by ANGGAPO (Layte Gulf Beach Club)
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To: blam

Yep. It has nothing with giving military secrets to China. A bunch of japanese senior citizens are going to get killed if their government keeps this up.


13 posted on 07/27/2013 11:04:54 AM PDT by gotribe (Vladimir Putin is MY President)
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To: DoughtyOne

Free Trade is the religion of the mammon worshippers.

“Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains.” ......Thomas Jefferson

We are seeing this play out in the Republican Party today. Many people who have called themselves patriots are showing their true colors. RINOS are mammon worshippers. They put their idol before nation or anything else.


14 posted on 07/27/2013 11:15:45 AM PDT by cradle of freedom (Long live the Republic !)
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To: gotribe
Yep. It has nothing with giving military secrets to China. A bunch of japanese senior citizens are going to get killed if their government keeps this up.

They have no choice. U.S. dominance is on the wane, particularly as a result of Obama's hand. Better for Japan to act now, while weak (aging population), rather than later and lose everything. Sooner or later, China will have a controlling hand over Japan and other Asian nations. Better later than sooner, because in the interim other nations may rise to the challenge to push back on China.

15 posted on 07/27/2013 11:34:02 AM PDT by roadcat
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To: dfwgator
.


a British ambassador quotation ?


.
16 posted on 07/27/2013 11:34:54 AM PDT by Patton@Bastogne (Swine Piss be upon the Sodmite Obama, and his Child-Rapist False Prophet Mohammed)
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To: dfwgator

I agree. I do think he bears some blame. I will say that even though he opened the doors to trade, it wasn’t him that actually pushed the policies to induce corporations to do what they have done.

Congress and future presidents implemented policies that saw us move every bit of business that we could China’s way.

I will also add in, for many years we were the ONLY NATION on planet earth running trade deficits with China. Europe wasn’t short sighted enough to hollow out their economies in this manner. We blazed new trails here.

Some trade with China to keep it on track with opening up to the West was reasoned. What we did was give them everything without them having to lift their little finger to reciprocate.

Did China have to promise to play nice internationally? No. Did it have to promise to treat it’s people better? No. Ten years after Tiananmen Square, and we treated China like it had been a sterling fellow of the highest standing. It wasn’t.

There were very small tariffs on merchandise coming out of China, and an effective 40% tariff on merchandise going in due to currency manipulation on China’s part.

Worst of all, China demanded full patent access to any manufacturing process on their soil, and our corporations agreed and gave away the farm.

We gifted China with five to six decades worth of technical advancements developed under our Western Free Enterprise Capitalist system. Had China had to develop those advancements on their own, they’d still be three or four decades behind us. Instead, China now has the fastest computer on the planet. In some ways China has actually surpassed the West.

Now it’s tossing it’s weight around, and it has reason to think it can get away with it. All this because greedy folks and crooked politicians sold their souls out for a buck. Capitalism is just like sex. When it’s incorporated into our lives an a wholesome manner, it’s wonderful. When it isn’t, it can become a nightmare.

Welcome to our nightmare.


17 posted on 07/27/2013 12:44:51 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Kill the bill... Begin enforcing our current laws, signed by President Ronald Reagan.)
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To: NoKoolAidforMe
Start with Bill Clinton.

Wasn't it Nixon that opened China? Right after the Cold War wound down in '91, the US/Chinese relationship should have been reconsidered, not expanded.

18 posted on 07/27/2013 6:02:20 PM PDT by Sawdring
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To: Sawdring

Yes, it was Nixon. And Bush 41 was the ambassador to China. Reagan was so busy dealing with the USSR, and China patiently waited and plotted. They laugh at us and it really ticks me off.


19 posted on 07/27/2013 6:14:32 PM PDT by NoKoolAidforMe (I'm clinging to my God and my guns. You can keep the change.)
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To: Patton@Bastogne

British royalty, if I recall correctly.


20 posted on 07/31/2013 1:13:39 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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