Japan Aff Michigan 2010 / ccgjp lab – 7wks

Presence Key (1/5)

Mike NPR http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/01/25/in-okinawa-elections-renew-debate-over-us-bases/

But this is not a position that all Japanese support.

In order to handle the matter successfully, Kan, the new prime minister, will have to explain that need better to the Japanese people, say some analysts.

Narushige Michishita, a specialist in strategic and defense studies at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, says Kan needs to address the issue of defending Japan. Michishita is sympathetic to the U.S. position, but he believes it will be difficult for Kan to convince the Japanese, especially the people of Okinawa, of the dangers Japan may face that require a large U.S. military presence.

"In a way he has been a little bit exaggerating the need for U.S. troops in Okinawa for the defense of Japan at the current moment," Michishita says.
U.S. presence is key to Japan’s security

Shuster, 6/21/10

Mike NPR http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/01/25/in-okinawa-elections-renew-debate-over-us-bases/

But this is not a position that all Japanese support.

In order to handle the matter successfully, Kan, the new prime minister, will have to explain that need better to the Japanese people, say some analysts.

Narushige Michishita, a specialist in strategic and defense studies at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, says Kan needs to address the issue of defending Japan. Michishita is sympathetic to the U.S. position, but he believes it will be difficult for Kan to convince the Japanese, especially the people of Okinawa, of the dangers Japan may face that require a large U.S. military presence.

"In a way he has been a little bit exaggerating the need for U.S. troops in Okinawa for the defense of Japan at the current moment," Michishita says.
Continued US presence in Japan is key to Japan’s security and checks on China and North Korea

The Yomiuri Shimbun 03/02/10

http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?id=9897&sec=3

Japan's leading English-language newspaper--is published by The Yomiuri Shimbun which has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Japan.
As did the last report, the latest version highlights the Pentagon's vigilance regarding China's military expansion, a process that has lacked transparency. The report says China has been developing and fielding ballistic missiles, new attack submarines, cyber-attack capability, and counter-space systems, pointing out that many doubts remain about their long-term purposes.

The report also referred to a fear that nuclear proliferation may proceed at once due to instability or collapse of nuclear powers. This reflects the United States' strong concern about international terrorist organizations, North Korea's nuclear tests and long-range ballistic missiles and Iran's nuclear development.

Meanwhile, senior foreign and defense officials from Japan and the United States entered into discussions in Tokyo aimed at deepening the bilateral alliance, as the current bilateral security treaty marked its 50th anniversary this year.

Dangers must be considered

It is vital that the acknowledgement of the threats posed by China's military expansion and North Korea's nuclear development presented in the report should be reflected in future discussions.

In light of the rapid modernisation of China's military, it is indispensable to strengthen cooperation between the Self-Defence Forces and the US military and to make an effort to strengthen deterrence.

The report hammered out a policy to steadily implement the realignment of US forces in Japan, ensuring the long term presence of the US forces in Japan and the reorganization of US forces in Guam.

It is important that Japan and the United States share awareness of the security environment of Asia and the rest of the world, then continue strategic discussions on examining rolesharing and cooperation.

Presence Key (2/5)

John and Blaine, Washington Post Staff Writer http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/21/AR2009102100746_2.html

Worried about a new direction in Japan's foreign policy, the Obama administration warned the Tokyo government Wednesday of serious consequences if it reneges on a military realignment plan formulated to deal with a rising China.

The comments from Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates underscored increasing concern among U.S. officials as Japan moves to redefine its alliance with the United States and its place in Asia. In August, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won an overwhelming victory in elections, ending more than 50 years of one-party rule.

In the past week, officials from the DPJ have announced that Japan would withdraw from an eight-year-old mission in the Indian Ocean to refuel warships supporting U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan. They have also pledged to reopen negotiations over a $26 billion military package that involves relocating a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter base in Japan and moving 8,000 U.S. Marines from Japan to Guam. After more than a decade of talks, the United States and Japan agreed on the deal in 2006. The atmospherics of the relationship have also morphed, with Japanese politicians now publicly contradicting U.S. officials. U.S. discomfort was on display Wednesday in Tokyo as Gates pressured the government, after meetings with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, to keep its commitment to the military agreement.

"It is time to move on," Gates said, warning that if Japan pulls apart the troop "realignment road map," it would be "immensely complicated and counterproductive."

In a relationship in which protocol can be imbued with significance, Gates let his schedule do the talking, declining invitations to dine with Defense Ministry officials and to attend a welcome ceremony at the ministry.

Hatoyama said Gates's presence in Japan "doesn't mean we have to decide everything."

For decades, the alliance with the United States was a cornerstone of Japanese policy, but it was also a crutch. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) outsourced many foreign policy decisions to Washington. The base realignment plan, for example, was worked out as a way to confront China's expanding military by building up Guam as a counterweight to Beijing's growing navy and by improving missile defense capabilities to offset China and North Korea's increasingly formidable rocket forces.

The DPJ rode to power pledging to be more assertive in its relations with the United States and has seemed less committed to a robust military response to China's rise. On the campaign trail, Hatoyama vowed to reexamine what he called "secret" agreements between the LDP and the United States over the storage or transshipment of nuclear weapons in Japan -- a sensitive topic in the only country that has endured nuclear attacks. He also pushed the idea of an East Asian Community, a sort of Asian version of the European Union, with China at its core.

Soon after the election, U.S. officials dismissed concerns that change was afoot, saying campaign rhetoric was to blame. Although most of those officials still say the alliance is strong, there is worry the DPJ is committed to transforming Japan's foreign policy -- but exactly how is unclear. DPJ politicians have accused U.S. officials of not taking them seriously. Said Tadashi Inuzuka, a DPJ member of the upper house of Japan's parliament, the Diet: "They should realize that we are the governing party now." Kent Calder, the director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at Johns Hopkins University and a longtime U.S. diplomat in Japan, said that if Hatoyama succeeds in delaying a decision on the military package until next year, U.S. officials fear it could unravel. Other Asian nations have privately reacted with alarm to Hatoyama's call for the creation of the East Asian Community because they worry that the United States would be shut out. "I think the U.S. has to be part of the Asia-Pacific and the overall architecture of cooperation within the Asia-Pacific," Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said on a trip to Japan this month.