Japan outlining new defense policy

Japan's new defense-program outline should enhance security on the country's southern islands and relax restrictions on arms exports, the Kyodo News Agency quoted a defense official as saying Monday.

Akihisa Nagashima, parliamentary defense secretary and a senior lawmaker of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), said at a party he was hosting in Tokyo that the government should "seriously consider" deploying more troops to southern Japanese islands, Kyodo reported.

According to the AP, the new defense outline will be compiled as early as next month and will be applied in 2011.

Nagashima listed five core aspects of the new outline, including a new strategy for national security, enhancing security in Japan's southwest region, transforming some of the Ground Self Defense Force into marines, participating more in international peacekeeping missions, loosening restrictions on arms exports and encouraging co-development of weapons technology with Japan's allies.

"Given tighter budgetary conditions, co-development is an international trend," Kyodo quoted Nagashima as saying. The panel is "discussing easing the conditions so we can develop arms technology and products together with our allies to some extent."

When asked about the report, Junya Nishi, a press liaison official at the Japanese embassy in Beijing, said he couldn't confirm Nagashima's remarks and refused to comment.

In April, Tokyo twice protested to Beijing over Chinese helicopter fly-bys close to Japanese naval destroyers near the southern Okinawa island. But Beijing blamed Tokyo for the incidents.

The two countries have been engaged in a series of East China Sea issues involving resources and territorial waters.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, China has completed construction of 13 permanent facilities on islands and reefs in the East China Sea, in an effort to clarify its territorial waters' baseline in the area.

Yang Bojiang, a professor at the University of International Relations, told the Global Times that if Nagashima's words were true, Japan's new defense outline would be in line with the country's objective to become a political power.

"Nagashima's call for military development reflects Japan's concern over China's rise. It is also the demand of Japan's right-wing conservative forces," Yang said. "The US may also be behind this, as a stronger Japanese military would balance China's presence in the region."

Agencies - Global Times