[Hankyoreh, July 2] Japan approves reinterpretation of Peace Constitution (Fwd)

[아름드리 나무]

(Fwd by Regina Pyon)

http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/645122.html

Japan approves reinterpretation of Peace Constitution

Posted on : Jul.2,2014 11:46 KST

Members of civic groups protest outside the Prime Minister’s Residence in Tokyo, holding signs with anti-war slogans, opposing the decision by the cabinet of Shinzo Abe to reinterpret Japan’s Peace Constitution to allow for “collective self-defense”, July 1. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

New interpretation will allow exercise of force in cases of “clear threat”, but change could lead to spike in regional tensions

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

With their ability to exercise self-defense, the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) now look poised to break free of the constraints of the so-called “Peace Constitution” (Article 9 of the Constitution) and transform into a powerful military.

The change is one that stands to sharply raise tensions in a Northeast Asian environment that is already rapidly changing with the eclipse of the US and rise of China. As of 2013, Japan ranked between fifth and eighth in the world for military spending, but analysts say the quality of its firepower, including state-of-the-art weaponry, is third only to the US and China’s.

The Cabinet decision, made by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on July 1, would constitutionally permit Japan to exercise the “minimum necessary measures” in situations of armed attack against another country with close ties to Japan that “poses a clear threat” in which the danger to Japan “fundamentally affects the people’s interests.”

To date, the JSDF has been seen as staying faithful to the principle of “exclusive defense,” or engaging only in defensive measures rather than offensive ones. The reason for this, observers say, is the spirit of Article 9, which repudiated the right of aggression and limited Japan to only exercising military force when the country itself was under attack. Even when the JSDF passed a peacekeeping operations (PKO) law in 1992 to take part in UN peacekeeping at the request of the US and others, or when it beefed up its military role with its 1999 Surrounding Areas Emergency Measures Law and the 2003 Iraq Special Measures Law, its activities were confined to rear support and non-combat zones.

The JSDF could now play a drastically different role after the Cabinet decision. The new interpretation of the Constitution, which had banned the exercise of collective self-defense, expands the scope of situations allowing the use of military force from attacks on Japan itself to those on “other countries.” And by not specifying exactly which other countries those were, Japan left room for some freedom of interpretation. For now, observers see Japan’s ally the US and South Korea as candidates, but the administration’s decision opened the door for the use of force in areas throughout the world, including the Middle East.

The administration also gains new freedom in interpreting another of the conditions for military force: the rather abstractly worded notion of a “clear threat to Japan.” Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper commented on this, noting that it would essentially “leave it up to the administration to determine whether or not to use force.”

“[This condition] raises the possibility of the scope of use for military force expanding to an unlimited degree,” the newspaper pointed out.

The Cabinet decision also paves the way for a vastly larger scope of rear support and weapons use in the JDSF’s peacekeeping operations.

The key point, analysts said, is that Japan views this very vagueness - the potential for unlimited exercise of JSDF firepower - as a deterrent. In the July 1 Cabinet decision, the administration explained, “With the drastic changes in the international environment surrounding Japan, no one country can preserve the peace alone. The government’s most important responsibility is to maintain the peace and safety of Japan, and to strengthen whatever deterrent is necessary to achieve this.”

This suggests that Tokyo, which has responded keenly to the geopolitical changes to the region brought about by China’s rise, determined it would be a “deterrent” to allow the JSDF free rein to preserve the country’s peace.

But its move also could threaten the Northeast Asian security situation even further by upsetting Beijing. Japan has recently been preparing for a possible clash with China over the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China), sending a new JSDF presence to the dispute Nansei Islands and Yonaguni Island. Following the Cabinet decision, Tokyo also plans to amend the law to allow the JSDF to be sent in more easily in so-called “gray zone” situations such as a landing on the Senkaku Islands by “suspicious fishermen,” as opposed to regular Chinese forces. Many critics worry the move could result in accidental frictions between the two sides escalating into regional warfare.

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