Advertisement
Advertisement
Japanese military personnel working on Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) surface-to-air missile units deployed at the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's Chinen Sub Base in Nanjo, Okinawa. Photo: EPA

Japan is shooting itself in foot with increased defence budget

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani has done poorly with his country's latest defence budget, announcing record spending and taking a swipe at China's measured response.

Diplomacy is a sensitive business, requiring careful use of words and actions. Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani has done poorly with his country's latest defence budget, announcing record spending and taking a swipe at China's measured response. There could have been no more inopportune time: the nations have just started taking tentative steps towards improving icy relations.

The rise was unsurprising: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants Japan to have a more pro-active military and the 2.8 per cent increase over last year's budget is the third consecutive annual boost. With an eye on disputed islands like the Diaoyus, known in Japan as the Senkakus, funding has been allocated for patrol and early-warning aircraft, stealth fighter jets and amphibious vehicles. The move follows the cabinet's reinterpretation in July of article 9 of the constitution to allow the military to take action against other countries, and the lifting of a ban on exporting arms and armaments. China and both Koreas, victims of Japan's brutal invasion and occupation before and during the second world war, are understandably alarmed.

President Xi Jinping initiated efforts to thaw relations at the Apec leaders' summit in Beijing in November, an awkward handshake with Abe and a short meeting symbolically marking the start of efforts to improve ties. The talks that began on January 12 in Tokyo to work out details on setting up a hotline and ensuring planes and ships around the Diaoyus use a common radio frequency began the process. But the approval the following day of the budget and Nakatani's explanation that the increase in spending was necessary to protect Japan and its people from foreign threats was coupled with an accusation that China was upsetting the region's stability with "dangerous actions". China's military budgets are substantially bigger and spending increases are in the double digits, but that is as much about longer borders and greater interests to protect as military modernisation. Beijing's opposition to the remarks and subsequent negative responses by Japanese officials make for uncertain further progress.

The region and world are closely watching Abe and his cabinet this year; August marks the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat and the end of the war. Relations with countries that suffered will worsen should the past be ignored. That means showing appropriate contrition, shunning historical revisionism and working towards peace and stability.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Japan shooting itself in foot
Post