The Abe government approved December 17, 2013, documents, which are the ‘New State Security Strategy’, ‘Defense Outline’ and ‘Medium-and- long-term Defense Plan’. Each of these papers specifies a concept called ‘proactive contribution to peace’ and emphasizes combat readiness against China to justify the Japan’s right of collective self-defense, which is outlawed by the Constitution. The government’s decision means a declaration to convert Japan to be a country that may wage a war against a third country.


STOP GOVERNMENT’S PLAN OF PROACTIVE BELLIGERENCY!


Under the government of Prime Minister Abe two bills were enacted by coercion in the last extraordinary Diet session: one is to set up National Security Council and the other is to allow specified state secretes to be kept classified. Consecutively, his cabinet made decisions to release three documents, the state security strategy, the defense outline and the intermediate and long-term defense program.


Contrary to efforts for peace


The paper, called State Security Strategy, repeats a term, ‘proactive contribution to peace based on international cooperation’. That means in effect that Japan should enhance military capabilities to influence more to the international community, intensify overseas deployment, reinforce military readiness in Asia, especially against China, and pursue multilateral alliances pivoting on the United States. This stance is quite contrary to peace-making efforts, in other words, proactive belligerency.


‘The Strategy’ defines as ‘national interests’ maintenance of sovereign right and independence, protection of territorial integrity and defense of people’s lives, entities and properties.


However, in real term, the strategy represents an integrated military cooperation with the US, coercion to keep bases in Okinawa and provocation of tensions with the neighboring countries. It also prefers public construction works and Big Business to helping natural disaster victims, attempts to resume operation at suspended nuclear plants and promote export and advances the TPP initiative.


The document stipulates environmental tasks; changing power balance by emerging countries, international terrorism, dangers inflicted from oceans, outer and cyber spaces, crisis of survival and dignity of individuals and uncertainties of global economy. But it ignores a fact that these perils come from collision of ‘national interests’ of one country or another and from the current global capitalism itself. The paper advises to respond to them with force.


Military commitments in Japan and overseas


The paper stresses strategic goals: (1) to intensify deterrent ability, (2) to consolidate the Japan-US Alliance and set up pragmatic security cooperation with other nations, and (3) to contribute to security on the global level.


In other words the strategic goals include;
(1) to intensify combat capabilities against China and enhance intelligence ability in the outer and cyber spaces and in training human resources,
(2) to reinforce military alliances; to combine with the Japan-US Alliance trilateral units of Japan-US-South Korea and Japan-US-Australia and to cooperate with European nations and others in the military field in order to increase allies globally,
(3) to strengthen weapons’ export and joint development,
(4) to join the UN Security Council and integrate Japan’s ODA programs into the security category.


The objective is to keep status-quo of superiority of the developed nations with the axis of the Japan-US Alliance.



Society to be militarized


The paper enumerates; to make good uses of ‘industries, universities and government institutions’ to acquire necessary technologies and human resources and NGOs to support missions and intelligence activities of the Self Defense Forces of Japan deployed abroad, to appreciate patriotism, to win trust of people living in the vicinity of military bases and to elaborate programs on security in the higher education institutions.


The government plans to militarize the Japanese society totally from economy and ideology to civilian cooperation in the security area.


The recent events, including a coerced enactment of the Specified Secrets Protection Law, negative revisions of education systems and school textbooks, lawmakers’ visits to the Yasukuni Shrine where war criminals are worshipped and the recent argument to approve the right of collective defense, are closely related with the ‘Strategy’.


January 14, 2014