In April, North Korea said that in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula, Japan would be “consumed in nuclear flames”. Pyongyang, which regularly fires short-range rockets into the sea separating the Koreas from Japan, has improved its ballistic missile capabilities and conducted three nuclear weapons tests, its most recent in February 2013. North Korea lies less than 600 km (370 miles) from Japan at the closest point. “We’re prepared to have that conversation when they’re ready.” NORTH KOREAN MISSILES “We’re not there yet - and they’re not there yet,” the official said. Washington did not have a position on upgrading Japan’s offensive capabilities, “in part because the Japanese have not developed a specific concept or come to us with a specific request”, said another U.S. backing for any shift in military doctrine because it would change the framework of the alliance, often described as America supplying the “sword” of forward-based troops and nuclear deterrence while Japan holds the defensive “shield”. “We again urge Japan to earnestly reflect on and learn the lessons of history, respect the security concerns of countries in the region and go down the path of peaceful development,” Hua told a daily news briefing in Beijing. A Japanese Defence Ministry spokesman said he could not comment on negotiations with Washington.Ĭhinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Asian countries had a right to be concerned about any moves to strengthen Japan’s military considering the country’s past and recent “mistaken” words and actions about its history. The officials declined to be identified because they were not authorised to discuss the closed-door deliberations. counterparts were cautious to the idea, partly because it could outrage China, which accuses Abe of reviving wartime militarism. Instead, the sensitive issue was “being discussed on a separate track”, said one official with direct knowledge of the matter.īut any deal with Washington is years away and the obstacles are significant – from the costs to the heavily indebted Japanese government to concerns about ties with Asian neighbours such as China and sensitivities within the alliance itself. Tokyo had dropped a request to discuss offensive capabilities during high-profile talks on revising guidelines for the U.S.-Japan security alliance which are expected to be finished by year-end, the Japanese officials said. He has reversed a decade of military spending cuts, ended a ban on Japanese troops fighting abroad and eased curbs on arms exports. Reshaping the military into a more assertive force is a core policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Japan is also buying 42 advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets. The Self Defence Forces have dozens of naval surface ships, 16 submarines and three helicopter carriers, with more vessels under construction. Japan’s military is already robust but is constrained by a pacifist Constitution.
official said Japan had approached American officials informally last year about the matter.
officials said there were no formal discussions on the matter but did not rule out the possibility that informal contacts on the issue had taken place. These could take various forms, such as submarine-fired cruise missiles similar to the U.S. The talks on what Japan regards as a “strike capability” are preliminary and do not cover specific hardware at this stage, the Japanese officials told Reuters.ĭefence experts say an offensive capability would require a change in Japan’s purely defensive military doctrine, which could open the door to billions of dollars worth of offensive missile systems and other hardware. They said Tokyo was holding the informal, previously undisclosed talks with Washington about capabilities that would mark an enhancement of military might for a country that has not fired a shot in anger since its defeat in World War Two. While Japan’s intensifying rivalry with China dominates the headlines, Tokyo’s focus would be the ability to take out North Korean missile bases, said three Japanese officials involved in the process. Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers ride on a high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (Humvee) during an annual training session near Mount Fuji at Higashifuji training field in Gotemba, west of Tokyo, August 19, 2014.
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