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REARMING of JAPAN

Tokyo to Take a Tougher Line With China

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The resounding victory by Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, led by Shinzo Abe, is more a vote against the incumbent Democratic Party of Japan than it is for the L.D.P. Even so, the perception that Abe’s forthright and confident approach breaks the mold of the consensus-based bureaucratic style of many Japanese leaders will please many voters and Japan’s security partners in the region.

This sentiment will not be replicated in Beijing. There is a groundswell of opinion within Japan that Tokyo should no longer be cowed by Chinese regional assertiveness. For many Japanese, Abe is the one willing to stand up to Japan’s larger neighbor.

Japan’s deep history of rivalry and conflict with China is well known. Part of this is currently being played out in the dispute over the Japanese administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Of major concern is the realization that Beijing is prepared to link political and strategic issues with economic reward and punishment.

In September, China’s vice minister for commerce, Jiang Zengwei, officially sanctioned and encouraged the boycott of Japanese goods and companies — particularly cars and electronic products. Chinese-based travel agencies were leaned upon to cancel or postpone tours to Japan, leading to a 33 percent fall in Chinese tourist numbers to Japan in October. Japanese companies such as Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Panasonic reported damage to their operations and property as thousands of Chinese staged anti-Japanese protests. It would be unthinkable that these demonstrations occurred without the authorities having previous knowledge that they would occur.

Beijing’s willingness to use trade as a strategic or political lever was deployed against Japan in 2010 over the same dispute when China halted the exports of rare earths to its neighbor. Beijing has behaved similarly to other countries, most recently when China temporarily halted the import of bananas from the Philippines due to the dispute over the Scarborough Shoal, threatening 200,000 Filipino jobs.

When Abe was prime minister from September 2006 to September 2007, he broke the contemporary tradition of softly-softly approaches to disputes with China. He was the personal driving force behind the now defunct Quadrilateral Initiative, a strategic partnership framework agreement between Japan, the United States, India and Australia. The initiative established the foundation for enhanced strategic cooperation and naval exercises among the four democratic powers. Formed at a time when regional states were still uncritically accepting the self-proclaimed rhetoric of China’s rise, the initiative was premature and a little too provocative. Abe also argued for an enhanced strategic partnership with India. He was not backward about declaring that these proposals were all about retraining Chinese ambition and behavior — probably the first modern Asian leader to openly say so.

Even in the lead-up to the recent election, Abe has been frank in saying that he will pursue an assertive alliance strategy, and in particular the deepening of the U.S.-Japan alliance. Concluding a security alliance with Australia would also presumably be high on his to-do list. Abe has also indicated that he would re-examine the self-imposed restriction that Japan spend no more than 1 percent of G.D.P. on defense. There are even indications that he would consider supplementing Japan’s highly impressive defensive military capabilities with formidable offensive military assets such as ballistic missiles, strategic bombers and amphibious units. If so, this could necessitate a “reinterpretation” of Article 9 of the country’s pacifist Constitution.

To be sure, Abe’s first priority is reversing signs of deflation in the economy. But many will fear a deterioration of China-Japan relations, with uncertain economic repercussions for trade between the two countries and the region. If deterioration in the bilateral political and economic relationship in fact occurs, a more assertive Abe government may not be to blame. After all, when the center-left Democratic Party candidate, Yukio Hatoyama, rose to power in June 2009, Tokyo pursued a much more lenient line toward Beijing. Never a supporter of the U.S. naval base Okinawa, Hatoyama declared that Japan should put less emphasis on the U.S. alliance and more effort into an exclusive East Asian economic and strategic zone — underpinned by closer strategic relations between Japan and China.

Beijing’s diplomats applauded the softer Japanese line. But it preceded a year — 2010 — when China pushed its weight around, picking fights with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and Australia — causing the entire region to question the credibility of China’s self-proclaimed peaceful rise.

Beijing’s aggressive behavior over disputes in the East China Sea and South China Sea may well be unrelated to Hatoyama’s softer approach. But Tokyo’s conciliatory line certainly didn’t temper Beijing’s behavior then, and even the outgoing center-left Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda toughened his stance against China.

Abe is nothing if not consistent. His calculation is that China will offer few economic favors or strategic concessions to a meek Japan. At the least, a stronger, firmer posture will certainly do no harm. And the gamble is that it may even cause Beijing to think twice about the cost of pushing its military and economic weight around East and Southeast Asia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/opinion/global/tokyo-to-take-a-tougher-line-with-china.html?_r=0#p
 
Japan's Abe would try to keep China ties calm-lawmakers


(Reuters) - Despite tough talk on the campaign trail, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will try to avoid a serious clash with China if his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) wins Sunday's general election, as expected, senior party officials said.

Ties between Asia's two biggest economies took a dive after Japan nationalized islets at the heart of a long dispute in September, prompting violent protests in China and a standoff in waters around the isles that has raised fears of a clash.

In a bid to underscore Japan's control over the East China Sea islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, the LDP has promised to consider manning them and building structures on [/B]them, a move bound to outrage China.

LDP lawmakers knowledgeable on foreign policy, however, suggest that an Abe administration, while remaining assertive in the territorial row, would be keen to improve ties and strike a pragmatic tone with its Asian neighbor.

"We don't want to do anything to further worsen the current state of affairs," Yoshitaka Shindo, an LDP lawmaker outspoken on territorial disputes, told Reuters in an interview.

"We need to calm down the situation and smooth over our relations as Japan doesn't want to run into any military collision with any neighboring country," Shindo said.

The LDP's tough campaign tone seems to have been intended to appeal to a growing sense of nationalism among some voters and keep them from turning to the right-leaning Japan Restoration Party, newly founded by popular Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto.

Abe proved he can be pragmatic in his first term in office when he surprised many by moving quickly to mend ties with Beijing.

He chose China as the destination of his first overseas trip and refrained from going to the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead, seen by many as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

"We have to set up a hotline between Tokyo and Beijing, so any potential accidents don't escalate into something bigger," said Yoshimasa Hayashi, a former defense minister and a junior cabinet minister during Abe's previous term in power in 2006.

"RELIANT ON RIGHT"

Ships from both countries have been shadowing each other near the disputed islands and on Thursday, a Chinese government plane entered what Japan considers its airspace over the area.

Japan scrambled fighter jets and protested to China in response.

Hayashi told Reuters that Japan-China talks now being conducted by diplomats should be elevated to the political level.

"This can take some time, but that is not a problem. We have to create such a framework and continue our talks," he said.

Still, analysts and Abe's advisers say that while Abe may be cautious ahead of an election for parliament's upper house next summer, his stance toward China will inevitably harden compared with his previous term given a tilt to the right in Japan's political sphere.

"This time around, Abe is more reliant on his right-wing backers who formed a part of the broader coalition that helped him get elected as the LDP chief," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano.

"It seems that his voters have also moved to the right and expect a hardened stance."

Japan's Abe would try to keep China ties calm-lawmakers | Reuters
 
China is richer than Vietnam, so they must pay more?
The fines used to be much less.

The Korean authorities kept raising the fines to send warning to Chinese fishing boats; if you are caught fishing in the Korean water without a license(Korean government does sell fishing license to Chinese fishing boats per the EEZ agreement with China), then you would go bankrupt with huge fines slapped on.
 
Japan's Abe worries China with island talk

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Japan's new PM declared there will be no compromise over disputed islands in the East China Sea. Source: AAP

INCOMING Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, boosted by his sweeping election victory, has declared there will be no compromise on the sovereignty of islands at the centre of a dispute with China.

China reacted with alarm to Abe's victory, after his conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) crushed opponents in national polls and he immediately restated Tokyo's claims.

"The Senkaku islands are Japan's inherent territory," Abe told reporters on Monday, referring to an archipelago Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

"Japan owns and controls the islands ... under international law. There is no room for negotiation on this point."


Beijing says it's ready to work with Japan on "further development of stable relations" but is alarmed by Abe's stance.

"We are highly concerned about which direction Japan will take," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing.



At home, Abe's large electoral margin boosted hopes for Japan's troubled economy, with investors pushing up stocks on Monday as the painfully high yen eased.

Abe has vowed to put the economy back on track after years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

Topping his agenda is a promise to pressure the Bank of Japan into more aggressive easing policies aimed at kick-starting growth as the world's third-largest economy slips into recession.

All eyes will be on the bank's policy meeting this week to see whether central bankers move in line with Abe's wishes.

His win also stoked speculation that whoever is appointed to replace BoJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa next year will favour a more aggressive easing stance.

Investors are increasingly betting on some action, with the yen tumbling against the US dollar and euro on Monday while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock index surged 0.94 per cent by the close.

Voters on Sunday dumped Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda three years after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) promised a change from more than half a century of almost unbroken LDP rule. The result cost Noda his party leadership.

The LDP and its junior coalition party New Komeito have secured a large enough majority in the lower house of the Diet (parliament) to overrule the upper chamber.

Brokerage giant Nomura said Abe's victory is likely to fuel expectations, particularly among foreign investors, of more expeditious policy-making.

Fukushima plant operator TEPCO was a big winner on Monday, with its shares rocketing 33 per cent, leading the charge by energy firms as investors cheered the likely end to an earlier attempt to abandon atomic power in Japan.

However, analysts say the LDP's victory came by default - with voters disenchanted by the DPJ after three years of flip-flops, policy missteps and diplomatic drift, but having little faith in any of the alternatives.

With turnout at a record low even Abe acknowledged the outcome was not a ringing endorsement.

"I think this result means a 'no' to the political confusion of the DPJ. People will be strictly watching if the LDP will be able to live up to expectations."

Abe is expected to be elected as premier by fellow MPs when parliament meets for a special session on December 26.

His offer to boost spending on infrastructure was popular with voters in the northeast, where the devastation of the March 2011 tsunami is still evident.

The Australian
 
Japan economy woes may temper Abe's zeal: Analysts


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TOKYO - Shinzo Abe's thumping majority gives him freedom to push his hawkish foreign policy agenda, but Japan's powerful business lobby may temper his more extreme instincts, particularly on China, analysts said Monday.

Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior coalition partner bagged more than two-thirds of lower house seats in Sunday's election, giving them power enough to override the upper chamber.

Hours after the scale of his win became apparent, Abe re-staked Tokyo's claim to sovereignty of islands at the centre of a debilitating spat with China.

He said the islands were "Japan's inherent territory" and chided Beijing to "think anew" about the state of relations between the world's second and third largest economies.

But Tetsuro Kato, politics expert and professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University, said Abe was aware of the need to navigate carefully and "knows the importance of ties with business circles".

Kato said Abe's hand would be constrained by manufacturing powerhouses such as Toyota and Sony, which have bases in China and enjoy the fruits of its huge market.

Tokyo and Beijing have been at loggerheads for decades over the sovereignty of a small chain of islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyus in China.

The dispute flared badly in September after Tokyo nationalised them, triggering protests across China that led to boycotts or attacks on Japanese businesses.

The LDP, egged on by the emergence of a burgeoning nationalist party, pledged to "study" the idea of building a dock and stationing officials on the islands.

Commentators say Beijing would react very badly to that, with some warning it could even lead to conflict.

But Mikitaka Masuyama, professor of politics at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, said China's huge economy and the massive trading relationship the two countries enjoy could trump Abe's zeal, even as it is likely to send him scurrying back into Washington's arms.

"Economic prosperity comes on condition that we enjoy stability and international security," he said, adding that had traditionally been "ensured by the alliance with the United States".

Masuyama said Abe would be aware that his super majority was not a carte blanche.

"It's not that voters gave credibility to Mr Abe's hawkish agenda. He knows that he has to moderate his confrontational posture on China if he wants to achieve results in economic recovery and keep public support," he said.

"If he fails to improve ties with China, voters will punish the LDP in upper house elections next year."

Park Cheol-Hee, director of the Institute for Japanese Studies in Seoul said South Korea - which faces its own presidential election this week - may find Japan under Abe to be very difficult.

"Abe is well known in South Korea for his nationalistic and sometimes controversial remarks and behaviour in the past," he said.

"If he plays the nationalist card while in office, the two nations may see an escalation of diplomatic disputes which have already strained ties."

But commentators have noted that during his last stint as premier in 2006-7, Abe shied away from provocations and relations with both China and South Korea actually improved.

Japan economy woes may temper Abe's zeal: Analysts
 
Hawkish prime minister-in-waiting tries to talk up China relations
Abe vague on manning Senkakus, Yasukuni visits


By REIJI YOSHIDA
Staff writer

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Shinzo Abe, who is expected to be named prime minister next week, tried Monday to ease international concerns a bit over his hawkish stance a day after his Liberal Democratic Party won an overwhelming victory in the Lower House election.

Responding to a question from a reporter of China's official Xinhua news agency at a news conference, Abe described Sino-Japanese relations as "one of the most important bilateral relationships," pledging to make efforts to improve bilateral ties that have been under severe strain.

"China is an indispensable country for the Japanese economy to keep growing," Abe said at his first press briefing since election day.

"We need to use some wisdom so that political problems will not develop and affect economic issues," Abe said.


Earlier in the same news conference, Abe was asked if, as prime minister, he will visit Tokyo's war-related Yasukuni Shrine and station government workers on the disputed Senkaku Islands, as he had proposed during the LDP's election campaign.

But he did not answer those questions specifically, except to generalize that it is important for Japan's leader to pay respects to the war dead at the shrine and defend the nation's territory.

"The (Senkakus are) the inherent territory of Japan. . . . We own and effectively control them. There is no room for negotiations about that," Abe said.

Japan must send a strong message to China that assaulting Japanese companies and people in China, as happened during anti-Japanese riots in the fall, clearly violates international rules, he said.

Japan, he noted, has made great investments in China and China has also greatly benefited from them, adding that the bilateral ties constitute a "mutually beneficial strategic relationship."

Yasukuni enshrines Japan's war dead who dedicated their lives to the country, Abe said, adding visiting the shrine should not be a source of diplomatic problems, even though this has not been the case with China.

"I should not say more than that" about Yasukuni, Abe said, declining to say whether he will visit it as prime minister.

A vast majority of those enshrined at Yasukuni are Japanese soldiers who died during the war, but wartime leaders who were found guilty of class-A war crimes, most notably Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo, are also honored at Yasukuni.

Abe has remained vague about whether he will visit the shrine as prime minister, an apparent attempt to avoid inflaming Beijing and losing core domestic support at the same time.

On the economy, Abe also said he will revive the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, which was a key advisory body for the Cabinet of ex-LDP Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

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I sincerely hope that Mr. Abe can get Japan out of the Pacifist mindset imposed on them by the American. Most importantly though I hope Mr. Abe can get Japan out of this economic slump, but with his record...

I also hope that Japan can swallow their pride & admit their past atrocity so that they can finally start a new beginning with China.
 
Japan paid his own karma of what they did several years ago, when Japan relationship with China and South Korea at the height.

Using Cheonnam incident, the North Korea problem, to indirectly attacking China with massive military training.

Using Japanese coast guard own failure, twisted and hugely propagandized as Chinese fishing boat ramming Japanese coast guard boat.

I can say, Japan is a very snob neighbor.
 
China better hope the Japanese don't militarize their country. America is restraining Japan. If America is not there to hold Japan back Japanese war ships might have already destroyed the Chinese Navy. Japan does not do "little wars" like China. They go all in or not at all. Objective being the total destruction of their enemies. China over reached and showed their hand to early. Now Japan is quietly building up their military. Japan is also helping other Asian countries with their military capabilities. Japan will arm Asian countries against China, the Japanese are in the process of lifting the ban on export of military equipment. Modifying Article 9. The Japanese are quietly preparing for war. If war starts the Chinese will fight on multiple fronts.
 
From what I saw, Japan behavior doesn't reflect a confidence.

There's no need something like that if Japan willingly to cooperate and make friendship. China is already offering the goodwill years ago, but reject it with backstabs on China. Now, they are complaining on China for their own mistakes.
 
From what I saw, Japan behavior doesn't reflect a confidence.

There's no need something like that if Japan willingly to cooperate and make friendship. China is already offering the goodwill years ago, but reject it with backstabs on China. Now, they are complaining on China for their own mistakes.

Japan mistake so defending one self is a mistake? wow nice logic?
 
China better hope the Japanese don't militarize their country. America is restraining Japan. If America is not there to hold Japan back Japanese war ships might have already destroyed the Chinese Navy. Japan does not do "little wars" like China. They go all in or not at all. Objective being the total destruction of their enemies. China over reached and showed their hand to early. Now Japan is quietly building up their military. Japan is also helping other Asian countries with their military capabilities. Japan will arm Asian countries against China, the Japanese are in the process of lifting the ban on export of military equipment. Modifying Article 9. The Japanese are quietly preparing for war. If war starts the Chinese will fight on multiple fronts.

Nice imagination dude. You should be writing a suspense Novel like Tom Clancy.

Responding to a question from a reporter of China's official Xinhua news agency at a news conference, Abe described Sino-Japanese relations as "one of the most important bilateral relationships," pledging to make efforts to improve bilateral ties that have been under severe strain.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/china-far-east/223666-rearming-japan-15.html#ixzz2FOn6qlfQ
 
China better hope the Japanese don't militarize their country. America is restraining Japan. If America is not there to hold Japan back Japanese war ships might have already destroyed the Chinese Navy. Japan does not do "little wars" like China. They go all in or not at all. Objective being the total destruction of their enemies. China over reached and showed their hand to early. Now Japan is quietly building up their military. Japan is also helping other Asian countries with their military capabilities. Japan will arm Asian countries against China, the Japanese are in the process of lifting the ban on export of military equipment. Modifying Article 9. The Japanese are quietly preparing for war. If war starts the Chinese will fight on multiple fronts.
IMO, JMSDF is still too strong to be faced by PLAN today.
 
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