The Abe government made a decision in the cabinet December 27 to dispatch the Maritime Self Defense Forces of Japan (MSDF) to the Middle East region. Two P3C patrol aircraft left Japan on January 20 and a destroyer, the Takanami, on February 2. The attempt violates a rule of civilian control and it should be abandoned.

WITHDRAW CABINET DECISION!

Decision of deployment – negligence of parliament

The decision was made hastily in the cabinet during prorogation of the Diet session. The Abe government, taking advantage of Article 4 of the Act for Establishment of the Ministry of Defense, set purposes, which are ‘investigation and research’. The overseas mission, excluding parliamentary debates, left people behind the closed door.

The Japanese government has sent troops abroad mainly on the basis of the UN PKO duties. Other missions beyond the UN category have been achieved by a special law which limits areas and periods of operations after parliamentary debates. The December decision has depended solely on the Act, omitting conventional norms.

The special law was approved in the past by the parliament when troops of the Air Self Defense Forces were sent to Iraq. Unfortunately enough, the units transported US soldiers and weapons, violating the law, while the government concealed the fact. Similar incidents will again happen.

In addition, the decision responds to a US request. The US government had proposed Coalition of Willing last June, inviting seven countries, including Japan, to survey over the four ocean areas around the Straits of Hormuz. The government explains the Japanese troops work in the Gulf of Oman, which it says is not a dangerous zone directly. The US-Japan alliance, however, shares intelligence duties. Practically, the Japanese military gets united with the US partner.

Risky patrol mission

The government simply replies during Diet debates that the SDF might not fall into an armed conflict, rejecting an assumption of unprecedented events. The Ministry of Defense has authority to issue an order, called Maritime Patrol Action, which allows troops to counterattack pirates and armed groups under a certain circumstance in the conflict seas in the Middle East. In fact, however, troops on-site have made judgment to cope with the situation. Risks to use weapons cannot be excluded.

What we must pay attention to in the recent government decision is a fact that the Abe administration has daringly turned to a strategy by which the controversial collective self-defense right may be executed, throwing away the principle of exclusively defensive posture.

The SDF has already been sent to the areas off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden to cope with pirates. The military has had a base in Djibouti since July, 2011, where approximately 400 troops are stationed. The MSDF, relying on Djibouti, will intensify the overseas base to remain permanently with an objective to contain the Chinese Navy.

Persuade Trump!

Japan depends on Middle East in its oil import up to 90%. Annually in total 3,900 ships sail in the region. It is impossible to evade pirates’ attacks in an immense sphere of oceans.

What Japan should do is to consistently pursue peace diplomacy; to convince the US government to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal of five nations and to pull out the MSDF troops from the Middle East.

March 3, 2020