New security laws strengthen military bond with United States

September 21, 2017

TOKYO- Operational integration of the Japanese Self Defense Forces into the US military has advanced under Japan's new security laws, enacted two years ago to allow the key Asian ally of the United States to exercise the right to collective self-defense with an enlarged scope of SDF activities.

Repeated military provocations by North Korea, such as missile and nuclear tests, have helped strengthen the bond between the Japanese and US forces under the laws, which have made it possible for the SDF to guard a US warship for the first time ever.

But concerns linger about the risk of the SDF getting involved in combat, if the US forces are attacked by an enemy.

Set to dissolve the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, for a snap election next month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is poised to highlight the significance of the new legislation, rammed through the Diet by the ruling coalition led by his Liberal Democratic Party in September 2015, during the upcoming election campaign.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera hailed the new laws, saying, "Japan-U.S. cooperation has been conducted very smoothly." He also noted the laws have "undoubtedly" bolstered deterrence and made Japan safer.

Meeting with Vice Adm. Phillip Sawyer, commander of the US 7th Fleet, later in the day, he voiced hope for building mutual relations that will allow the Japanese and US forces to join hands in many other occasions within the new legal framework.

Under the new laws, which took effect in March 2016, the Japanese government has tried to establish seamless defense cooperation with the United States.

Since April this year, the Maritime SDF has conducted its newly assigned missions. Specifically, its vessels supplied fuel to US Aegis destroyers in surveillance and warning activities against North Korea in the Sea of Japan and other waters and escorted a US supply ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Besides the combat involvement risk, there are also worries about the Japanese public being shut out of information on SDF activities conducted under the new laws, critics said, pointing out that the MSDF ships' moves were revealed by media reports.

It is thinkable that the government will not announce at all even if SDF troops face an extremely serious situation, they added.

Whether or not to disclose such information will be decided case by case, Onodera said at the news conference.

Major opposition parties, such as the Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party, demand the security laws be scrapped, raising the possibility that the laws will be made a campaign issue. Jiji Press