The attack on the islands has begun!
"Japan’s prime minister calls for shift in use of military; Divisive change would OK aid to allies under siege" by Chico Harlan | Washington Post May 16, 2014
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday in a nationally televised address that Japan should allow its military to come to the aid of allies under attack, a divisive step that has been banned since the aftermath of World War II and would require a reinterpretation of Japan’s pacifist constitution.
The reinterpretation still faces major legislative hurdles, but it would mark a drastic shift in the way Japan uses its military, known as the Self Defense Forces. Abe said his government would seek to lift the ban on what is known as collective self-defense as a way to ‘‘strengthen deterrent force’’ in an increasingly volatile region.
‘‘It is necessary to deepen cooperation with other countries so that we can seamlessly . . . cope with any situation to protect our peaceful lives,’’ Abe said, according to the Reuters news agency, adding that Japan’s peaceful posture would not change.
By allowing for collective self-defense, Japan would open areas for cooperation with the United States and would be allowed, for instance, to help a US vessel under attack on the high seas. But the potential for expanded military involvement also would spark concern in a region that still harbors memories of Japan’s runaway militarism in the early 20th century.
The concern is not the return of the Imperial Japanese Empire that is the concern; it is the ability of the U.S. to use it as a tool.
With his evening speech, Abe made his most emphatic pitch yet for a change he considers long overdue.
His address came in tandem with an advisory panel report, released earlier in the day, that provided a detailed rationale for how Japan could reinterpret its constitution to expand the role of its military both in defense of friendly nations and in UN operations that require military measures. Abe formed the panel of handpicked advisers last year.
Japan’s constitution, drawn up by US-led occupiers in bombed-out postwar Tokyo, is a document both celebrated and shackling. It renounces war and has ushered Japan through decades of pacifism. But it has also never been changed, with any revision requiring a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament as well as a national referendum.
I'm a little bothered by an occupying power writing the thing up. Maybe the Japanese should write one of their own after all these years.
As an alternative to constitutional change, Japan has reinterpreted the document, which, read literally, bans land, sea, and air forces, as well as military hardware. With reinterpretations that began in 1954, Japan has gradually created one of the world’s most advanced militaries — but also one of its most limited.
For decades, the government has deemed that the Self-Defense Forces must use the minimum force necessary to stave off a direct threat. In an often-cited example, under the current constitutional interpretation, Japan is unable to intercept a ballistic missile fired from North Korea that might be headed for the United States.
Abe’s advisory panel made the case Thursday that Japan’s self-interest is still at stake farther afield. The report argued that the ‘‘survival of Japan would be affected’’ if its alliance with Washington was undermined because Japan had not responded adequately to a crisis, including a terrorist attack on US soil. The United States, which has 53,000 troops stationed in Japan, has provided a security backing for Tokyo since 1960.
The Japanese people want us out, but you know.
Japan’s restrictions could also be exposed in the disputed waters of the East China Sea or South China Sea, if a friendly nation were to come under attack. The report specifically cited North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and China’s increasing military spending.
‘‘Considering the remarkable scale and speed of the changes occurring in the security environment,’’ according to a translated version of the report, posted on the prime minister’s website, ‘‘Japan is now facing a situation where adequate responses can no longer be taken under the constitutional interpretation to date in order to maintain the peace and security of Japan and realize peace and stability in the region.’’
Abe is not the first prime minister to suggest a change in Japan’s ban on collective self-defense, but he is perhaps the most controversial.
Particularly in China and South Korea, Abe is viewed as hawkish and confrontational, and eager to play down Japan’s past wartime atrocities. Even in Japan, Abe’s vision of a more ‘‘normal’’ security posture is a delicate subject.
Related: Japan needs military options
About 63 percent of voters oppose the idea of collective self-defense, a poll by the left-leaning Asahi Shimbun newspaper indicated last month.
Oh, the PEOPLE OPPOSE WAR, huh?
Yeah, I'll bet the last thing the Japanese people want to see is more mushroom clouds in Asia.
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I'm starting to see a theme, aren't you? Asians in the streets!
Time to move along:
"Japan urges US to build maglev train line; Key ally offers a template for high-speed rail" by Michael Laris | Washington Post May 11, 2014
WASHINGTON — In the car-loving context of the American transportation system, where political gridlock and scarce funding mire down many big ideas, there are countless questions.
Among them: Which private investors will pony up for a magnetically levitated train that boosters say will cost $100 billion or more? How much will the government, already struggling to keep up with aging infrastructure, chip in? Can skittish residents in the train’s path be convinced, or at least bought off relatively affordably?
Also, do American policy makers have the inclination for such a venture? And can a nudge from one of the United States’ top allies make a difference?
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushed the proposal in a recent meeting with President Obama in Tokyo, and the Japanese government has offered a low-interest loan to finance up to half the $10 billion-plus first leg of a new maglev line from downtown Washington to Baltimore. That ride would take 15 minutes.
Good grief! Japan's economy is in trouble and they need funds for Fukushima, and he's offering loans for maglev trains in the U.S.?
The prime minister has touted the ‘‘dream technology.’’
‘‘It would free people from the congested roads that frazzle their nerves while saving not only 443,000 gallons of gasoline but also 682,000 hours of time that are now wasted annually,’’ Abe said last year at the New York Stock Exchange. The prime minister took America’s ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, for a 300-plus-mile-per-hour spin on the duck-nosed train earlier this month.
Is that what she is up to? Being taken for a ride by her Japanese hosts?
This is getting on my nerves.
Japan has a 27-mile initial maglev line outside of Tokyo, and is slated to begin construction later this year on the rest of a privately financed 178-mile line between the capital and Japan’s third largest city, Nagoya, according to Yoshiro Taguchi, transportation counselor at Japan’s Embassy in Washington.
Much of it will be underground and it is set to be completed by 2027, Taguchi said.
Underground? In a nation prone to earthquakes?
Once completed, the American line would have a super express version — making one stop in Philadelphia and reaching New York in an hour. There would also be a slightly more local version with traditional East Coast stops in Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., and Newark....
$erving who?
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Look, they may even have a real point (although I think the service is going to be for the elite; otherwise, it wouldn't be promoted by my paper).
Also see: Japanese retailer Uniqlo expanding to Boston
I'm done fumbling around with this post.
