US envoy asks Japan to boost defense role

By Hiroyuki Koshoji
UPI Correspondent

Published: January 15, 2009

U.S. ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer speaks at his last press conference in Tokyo on Jan. 14, 2009, before flying back home. Schieffer called on Japan to shoulder equal responsibility in international affairs as an allied partner of the United States. (UPI Photo/Hiroyuki Koshoji)

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Tokyo, Japan — The U.S. ambassador to Japan has urged the country to play a greater role in the international community, as an ally of the United States, and to rethink the interpretation of its pacifist Constitution with regard to defense.

Thomas Schieffer, who will leave Japan this month as U.S. President-elect Barack Obama takes over the administration, was speaking to the press in Tokyo Wednesday.

Asked if the Japan-U.S. alliance should be redefined, Schieffer said, "I think a redefinition would be appropriate."

“I think America would welcome an alliance of equals, and I think Japan would too. But an alliance of equals is one that has equal responsibilities and equal shares in the future," he said, adding, "I think Japan can speak with a louder voice in international affairs."

Scheiffer, who has served as U.S. ambassador to Japan since January 2005 and understands the severe controls placed on its defense forces under the pacifist Constitution, called on Japan to change the interpretation of the Constitution to permit the country to defend allies under attack.

If a missile were launched from Asia, for instance, and a Japanese destroyer had a chance to knock it down but didn't because it was headed to the United States, he said, "I think the American people would find it very difficult to understand the value of the alliance with Japan."

As the Japanese government has interpreted the post-World War II Constitution, it does not allow collective defensive actions, even though the country has the right to defend itself.

Successive prime ministers, including Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe, have tried to change the interpretation of the Constitution. But the current administration of Taro Aso has held to a complex policy that involves having the right to take defensive action, but not exercising it.

However, as Japan and the United States have already deployed a missile defense system in four places around Tokyo and on four of Japan's Aegis destroyers, Japan can be considered to be already engaged in collective defense.

Japan and the United States each have a destroyer in the Sea of Japan, but the United States would have to beef up its defenses there if the Japanese were not willing to knock out a missile headed to the United States, Schieffer said.

"I don't believe Article 9 (of the Constitution) necessarily needs to be revised, but the interpretation of collective defense needs to be looked at," he emphasized.

Regarding North Korea, Schieffer was insistent that the country must give up its nuclear weapons or remain isolated from the international community. He said the United States sees North Korea’s nuclear weapons as “tremendously destabilizing” and increasing the chances of an accidental war.

Schieffer’s remarks are likely to affect Japanese leaders, who have placed the Japan-U.S. relationship at the center of their foreign policy. Analysts predict that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged to withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months and transfer some of them to Afghanistan, may increase pressure on Japan to contribute to this or other tasks.

Prime Minister Taro Aso, at a New Year’s press conference, expressed his intention to consider changes to the official interpretation of collective self-defense.

Moreover, the government is preparing to introduce legislation to the current Diet session that would allow it to dispatch its Maritime Self-Defense Force to the Indian Ocean to join international patrols guarding waters off Somalia against piracy. The new law would ease restrictions on the navy's use of weapons.