Time for serious discussion.
Hello. This is Mike, a lawyer living in Hong Kong.
The G7 foreign ministers' meeting was held in London. Meanwhile, domestically, the Referendum Law Amendment Bill was passed in the current Diet session. I don't think these two events are coincidental.
Japan's outer moat has been hardened.
First, the Referendum Law Amendment Bill. This is an amendment to the law governing the referendum necessary to amend the Constitution. The amendment itself is general and not particularly problematic, and since the law is for the referendum procedure, its passage is not important in and of itself. However, until now, we have been unable to enter the debate on constitutional revision because this amendment has not been passed. Now we can have a substantive discussion about amending the Constitution. Keep this in the back of your mind for a moment.
Next, the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting. The G7 foreign ministers' meeting also issued a statement on protecting the security of "Taiwan" from "China" before there was almost no discussion in Japan, or rather, as a matter of course. This is the first time for the G7 foreign ministers to mention "Taiwan" in their statement. The G7 summit to be held next month will naturally include the same statement. Incidentally, the G7 is
UK, France, Germany, Italy → Europe
US, Canada → North America
Japan → Only East Asia
So, as in the case of Japan and the US, only Japan is in a position to confront China on the front line.
Notably, South Korea, India, Australia and South Africa have been invited by the British Presidency to attend. Of these countries, South Korea is a neighbour to China across the North Korean border, India has an ongoing border dispute with China, and Australia already has an economic dispute with China. Clearly, these three countries have been brought into the China encirclement camp. India and Australia are former British colonies. That's pretty good.
The United Kingdom has sent the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth to the Indian and Pacific Oceans and is scheduled to make a port call in Japan. However, after Brexit, we were free to leave Europe, and once again became a maritime nation with our eyes on the world. At the moment, the U.S. and China are staring at each other across the Pacific Ocean. If we are not careful, China will try to take over the countries around the Indian Ocean.
We cannot afford to be complacent. We must quickly team up with Japan and the U.S. to form a camp against China. We need to bring our European neighbors and our old henchmen into the fold. Let's also bring in South Korea, which is like a gatekeeper. Let's go to war ourselves!"
I guess that's about it.
France is not keeping quiet. We have beautiful islands in the South Pacific, including New Caledonia. It also has islands in the south-west of the Indian Ocean. So we were the only European country to send a warship to the Pacific. We would not like it if these islands and the surrounding sea were under Chinese control. So, since 2019, we have been holding joint exercises in the Indian Ocean with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, the US and Australian armed forces. This year, the Indian army has joined in. And finally, next weekJapan-US-France joint drill in Kyushu We will do it. We will also have ground combat training. It is the turn of the GSDF.
And so will Germany. to the Indo-Pacific this summer.Dispatch of frigates This summer, we will We'll even hold joint exercises. Together with our former ally Japan, we are going to stare China in the face.
Now, if you look at it this way, it's clear that the Western powers, plus North America, Australia and India, are preparing for China as a real opponent. On top of that, they have joined forces with Japan, the most important country in East Asia, and have started joint war drills in various parts of the world. There will be more in the future. From China's point of view, Japan is clearly a Western ally as it is always making statements and conducting joint training together.
But what can Japan do now? Japan is the only country in the world that does not have an army. Japan is the only country in the world without an armed force. It is an "unarmed" country that faces its enemies on the front line and waits for reinforcements to arrive from as far away as Europe and the Americas. Of course, the SDF's sphere of action and scope of activity has recently been extended by a change in the interpretation of the constitution (whether this is permissible is not clear for the moment), so that it may effectively be called an army. However, there is still a line that cannot be crossed under the Constitution. Since we don't have an army, why don't we raise the defence budget and ask for help from the US military? This is not the time to be complacent. If we say that we cannot fight unarmed, so we have to protect the allied forces, we will be the first target.
Japan has a peaceful constitution. Article 9 is at the heart of this. But now is the time to seriously consider this article. I don't think it is a coincidence that the amendment to the Referendum Law that I mentioned at the beginning of this article was passed at this time. It may be that the opposition parties have realised that a substantive debate on constitutional reform is needed. In any case, until now, the debate on the amendment itself has not been possible because there has been a struggle at the entrance. This is why the timing of the amendment is so important.
If you look at what the West is doing now and how Japan is linked to it, before you know it, Japan will have to have an army. The outer moat is completely solidified. If this had happened a few years ago, it would have been expected that many people would vote against the constitutional reform, but in this situation, it is hard to tell. Standing on the edge of the hot bath of constitutional revision, "Don't push it! It seems that the western countries are trying to push Japan back. If Kan has thought this through and issued the joint statement with the US and Japan with the intention of creating a situation in which the Japanese people would be forced to seriously debate constitutional reform before they realised it, then he is a brilliant strategist. There must be someone clever at the helm.
Of course, we are absolutely against war and armed conflict. But there is a difference between the principle of not going to war and being prepared for it. This is a debate about what we should be prepared to do in the event of war. The time has come to start this debate. The folly of saying that a nuclear accident is impossible, and therefore we should not prepare for it, is over.
Incidentally, I am in favour of the debate on constitutional reform. The constitution itself has a procedure for amendment and it is necessary to amend it to meet the changing times.
I am also basically in favour of Japan having its own army. It is more than natural for an independent country to have its own army. As long as Japan is hiding behind Giants and barking, it will always be Giants' henchman.
But only if the system allows the government to control the army correctly.
The reason why pre-war Japan went to war was that the Emperor's General Authority, a uniquely Japanese governing structure, existed as a separate authority from the democratic governing body of the country, and the army and navy used it to run amok, forcing individuals to make sacrifices in order to protect the state. Therefore, I believe that it is possible to have an army if the SDF is recognized as an army within the framework of the current Constitution, which is based on the dignity of the individual and the principle of peace, and if the SDF is allowed to carry out its duties for national defence with democratic control. This means placing the SDF within the executive branch and recognising it head-on. I think this is an area that needs to be discussed at length.
Gone are the days of being a bloke in peace. See you next time.
