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21st Century Shape of Japan Series, No. 2 THE URGENT PROBLEM OF DEFENDING SEA-LANES,
THE LIFELINE OF JAPAN AS ECONOMIC POWER |
| The opening of the 21st Century has been noted
for the assumption of office of the United States' new president,
George Bush, the precipitous decline of the U.S. economy, and Japan
finally being forced by the consequences of that near crash to again
change the course of economic measures that had been set. President
Bush's policy towards East Asia is the principle of placing importance
on the United State's national interest and of strictly carrying out
its treaties of alliance made based on this principle with each Asian
nation. The lineup of the new Bush administration is one well suited
to carrying out such a program. The United State's attaching importance
to its own national interest is a natural global strategy in view
of the new era of international relations. For Japan, this American
policy of stressing its own national interest and consequently calling
for increased burden and cost sharing from its treaty partners according
to each nation's economic power, coming as it does in the midst of
the current of Anglo-Saxon internationalization, globalization and
the spread of the global IT (information technology) network, means,
at last, the expansion of Japan's normal participation in the international
arena as a full-fledged player Japan's national sovereignty was restored in 1951 by the San Francisco Peace Treaty. However, this involved the restoration of domestic sovereignty, and although Japan's external independence was of course recognized under international law, in practice Japan's national interest was never independently asserted against another nation (there was no need for it). Consequently, the position of the government, the attitude of academic circles, and the consciousness of the majority of the people were focused solely on economic prosperity as the national goal, and Japan's history, traditions and culture were deliberately rejected in the name of a headlong repentance for the war. For example, the definition of the "right to live in peace" as used in the books and essays of famous international legal scholars and constitutional experts has hardly changed at all in the last 50 years. Thus, the interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution is inconsistent with present-day international relations; university lectures as well as the contents of bar exams and national civil service exams still, as ever, feature an interpretation restricted to the matter of Japan's domestic interest; and discussions on constitutional revision in the Diet fail to advance one bit in spite of the sound explanations offered by scholars in constitutional review panels and so on. Each nation's putting its own interest first and the contentious international climate of this 21st Century will at last change the consciousness of Japan. In a sense, the new Bush administration's diplomacy toward Asia amounts to a stroke of good luck for Japan's external relations -- a good opportunity for Japan to establish in East Asia its external independence (i.e., the right to conduct its own diplomacy and the right to defend itself) based on the justice of law. First of all, let us start with the securing of sea-lanes*1 in order to maintain the national wealth and resources of the great economic powers, which accumulated after World War II and maintain the world's wealthiest lifestyles. The second-tier economic powers of the world depend on foreign countries for almost all of their commodities and also depend on exports. This system is supported legally by the observance of international law, the Charter of the United Nations and numerous treaties; economically, by the principle of free trade, the WTO agreement, and so on; and militarily by security guarantees such as the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty In spite of this, acts of piracy have been on the increase in recent years. In particular, the largest portion of the world's incidences of piracy (about one half -- 285 cases -- in 1999) occurred in the Southeast Asian seas: the Strait of Malacca, the seas around Malaysia, the waters of the Indonesian archipelago and those of the Philippines. Modern-day piracy is organized by international syndicates who employ increasingly brutal methods and are equipped with things like automatic small arms, high-powered radios, radar and GPS. Japan has an inherent sovereign right to protect its citizens' lives and assets from piracy. This keeping of the peace through naval defense capacity amounts to neither aggression against nor the unlawful infringement of the territory or property of other countries. Criminal methods never seen before are occurring even within the territory of Japan these days, and methods of criminal investigation and prosecution are in need of reform to deal with these new challenges. Similarly, Japan is in need of new measures to combat maritime crimes. Under the law, the Maritime Safety Agency has the authority to control such crimes, but the introduction of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is necessary to meet the greater strength level presented by today's pirates. Until recently, the Japanese commodities targeted by pirates were industrial raw materials such as aluminum ingots, etc. Suppose, however, that along with the improvement of the diets of the countries of Southeast Asia, fishing vessels transporting tuna, shrimp, crab and other seafood came under attack. The diets of Japanese citizens would be directly attacked, and the mass media would certainly give this wide coverage. Shipping companies can protect themselves against harm through insurance against loss, but such insurance cannot provide relief if commodities that comprise the Japanese diet suffer harm and prices to consumers increase. Even well-fed Japanese lulled into complacency by years of peace will have their eyes opened to self-defense and the right of self-defense if they confront the reality of their own interests being infringed. The mass media reports and reaction of public opinion that followed the incursion into Japanese territory of an unidentified ship in March of 1999 is a good example. Because of this incident, there will probably be a revision of the law to legalize the participation of Japan's Self-Defense Forces participation not only in U.N. peacekeeping operations but also in its peacekeeping force as well as joint exercises with other member nations. I conclude that this will end up being the the short-term Japan policy formulated by the new Bush lineup and its pro-Japan academic advisors. *1 Sea routes of great commercial and strategic value to nations, which should be protected in emergencies |
