JAPAN TO UNFOLD ANTI-MISSILE DEFENSE

http://www.vor.ru/Exclusive/excl_next8689_eng.html

Voice of Russia
November 15, 2006

JAPAN TO UNFOLD ANTI-MISSILE DEFENSE
Alexander Vatutin

The creation of a national security committee and the
deployment of anti-missile defense are among the
Japanese government’s plans for the near future with
most observers seeing them as part of efforts to
revise the country’s constitution.

Calls for strengthening national defense are virtually
an attempt to justify Japan’s backtracking from three
nuclear principles – not to possess, produce or import
nuclear weapons.

So far, Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution forbids
it to possess offensive weapons.

But debates are already underway about possible
amendments favored both by the cabinet and lawmakers.

North Korea’s nuclear program is being cited as a
pretext for reviving Japanese militarism.

Yet, despite the gravity of the threat, as long as
there is a chance to negotiate and with the 6-nation
talks on North Korea likely to resume in December, is
it worth brandishing a nuclear bogey?

Militarist moods have, in fact, never completely
abated in Japan.

Suffice it to mention so-called Days of Northern
Territories and visits by Japanese officials of the
highest rank to the Yasukuni temple where World War II
criminals sentenced to execution by the International
Tribunal were buried.

Against this background, the government’s statements
that the Constitution does not prevent the country
from having a minimal amount of nuclear weapons were a
little surprise.

Although Premier Shinzo Abe hurried to confirm Japan’s
commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, he failed to
allay widespread concern about the rise of Japanese
militarism and its potential consequences for Asia and
the Pacific.

Analyst Sergei Lunyov warns that uncontrolled arms
race and the collapse of the nuclear non-proliferation
regime will have a boomerang effect for Japan: Seeing
Japan ready to turn into a military monster, Pyongyang
will most likely decide go ahead with its nuclear
missile program.

"I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something of the sort
from North Korean leaders. Life shows that any attempt
to rewrite history is fraught with unpredictable
consequences, and this instills hope that the wise and
clever Japanese will not follow this dangerous path
and will keep focused on maintaining their lead in
high technologies, automobile industry and culture
instead."

===========================
Stop NATO
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato

To subscribe, send an e-mail to:
stopnato-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
==============================