Military guidelines need clarification

Not surprisingly, the guidelines on the Japanese-United States Security Treaty announced over the weekend have raised concerns not only among some Asian countries but also in Japan. What has been presented as guidelines of the 1978 treaty would appear, to more objective observers, as an expanded arrangement that might even test Japan's pacifist constitution.

Article nine of the Japanese constitution prohibits the country from using military force to settle any international dispute and restricts its deployment for the defense of the nation.

But now the new guidelines suggest something much more, even ominous, for Japan's military. While this new arrangement, where Japan is expected to provide logistical and possibly financial support to the US, might be primarily aimed at the Korean peninsula, nobody could blame other regional nations from feeling apprehensive about the Japanese military's new role. There are indeed some worrying aspects to the interim report, which sets out the respective roles of Washington and Tokyo, in the event of an attack on Japan and in "areas surrounding Japan".

What are "areas surrounding Japan"? For more than 20 years, there have been attempts to have Japan extend its naval role to 1,000 nautical miles from Japanese waters to safeguard vital sea lanes. Lack of clarity does allow one to speculate that this new security arrangement, while primarily aimed at the Korean peninsula, could well be used in some contingencies against China. There is an urgent need for both Washington and Tokyo to allay regional fears that this could be the prelude to a new cold war in our region.

-- The Hong Kong Standard