ASIA NEWS
Updated January 14, 2013, 4:36 a.m. ET
Japanese General Seeks to Reinforce Defenses
By YUKA HAYASHI
TOKYO—Japan must beef up its air, sea and land defenses in the nation's southwest, Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, the top uniformed official of the Japanese military, known as the Self-Defense Forces, said in an interview.
China's navy and air force have been gradually shifting activities closer to the waters and skies near Japan's southwestern islands, Gen. Iwasaki said, and "establishing a tenacious presence" in what is becoming an increasingly contentious part of the Asia-Pacific.
Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, Japan's top uniformed military official, discusses how Japan is responding to China's expansion in East Asia in an exclusive interview with The Wall Street Journal.
He noted that last month, when a Japanese coast guard cutter spotted a small Chinese aircraft flying above disputed East China Sea islands, Japan's air force scrambled eight F-15 fighter jets, but they reached the scene only after the intruder had left. Japan's radar or surveillance planes had missed the low-flying aircraft entering what the nation considers its airspace, causing a delay. That embarrassing incident underscores the need for stronger defenses, the general said.
"I believe we have an extremely good defense system but we still can't say it's perfect," Gen. Iwasaki, chief of staff of the SDF's Joint Staff, said in the Thursday interview, his first with the foreign media since taking the top job a year ago. "On Dec. 13, we allowed [China's] intrusion into our airspace. We need to strengthen our defense capability so there will be no such holes."
Gen. Iwasaki and the SDF's 250,000 troops have gained a powerful ally. The conservative government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power last month pledging an assertive foreign policy to counter the growing military threat of China and North Korea. Since then, Mr. Abe has unveiled a series of steps to strengthen Japan's military, long constrained by the country's pacifist constitution and by fiscal austerity.
Associated Press
Japan's Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, left, and U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey at the Pentagon in August
In a move that would boost Japan's military spending for the first time in a decade, the defense ministry said Friday that it had requested a 2.2% increase in its budget to a minimum of ¥4.706 trillion ($52.8 billion) for the next fiscal year starting in April.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Japan's military spending ranked sixth in the world in 2011, the most recent comparative data available, trailing the U.S., the top spender with more than $700 billion, and China, which ranked No. 2 at about $170 billion.
In addition to seeking more funds for defense next year, the new Japanese government is adding more for the current fiscal year by requesting ¥180.5 billion for weapons purchases and other defense purposes as part of an emergency economic stimulus package.
On the shopping list: a new submarine, a destroyer and surveillance planes for the navy; more aerial radar capabilities for the air force via upgrades of equipment such as airborne warning and control systems, or Awacs, and early warning aircraft known as E-2C.
The army will conduct more drills for island defense and prepare new bases in places such as Yonaguni, an island less than 100 miles from the disputed East China Sea islands, known as the Senkakus in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
"Prime Minister Abe has instructed us to defend at any cost our people's lives, property, territorial land, waters and skies," Gen. Iwasaki said in the interview. "Accordingly, we want to strengthen our posture in the southwest, particularly around the Senkakus."
That was the scene of the failed December scramble. Gen. Iwasaki, a compactly built air force commander who still sometimes pilots an aircraft when traveling for work, said the Chinese patrol plane had escaped the nearest land-based radar by flying at an extremely low altitude. This, he said, underscored the need for more aerial monitoring, both from aircraft and satellites.
China isn't the only nation worrying the 59-year-old four-star general. North Korea remains "unpredictable in its intent," he said, as the rogue nation increases the frequency of missile launches under the pretense of satellite testing.
Russia's air force and navy have been stepping up activities in the Far East, after remaining dormant for a decade and a half following the fall of the Soviet Union, Gen. Iwasaki said. "Russia sees itself as part of Asia," he said. "I think Russia has joined the race for various concessions in this region."
To its north, Japan has a separate territorial dispute with Russia, and Japan's air force conducted 247 scrambles against Russian planes in the year ended in March, more than double the levels seen before 2007. That is higher than the number of scrambles prompted by Chinese aircraft, a tally that hit 156 last year, compared with 96 and 38 in the previous two years, according to the defense ministry.
"After the Cold War, we optimistically assumed we'd be collecting a dividend of peace," Gen. Iwasaki said. "The reality has been a lot tougher."
Since the latest flare-up of the island dispute in September, Beijing appears to have stepped up provocations by sending in maritime patrol ships with more frequency and boldness.
After Tokyo protested a 13-hour stay of Chinese boats in territorial waters around the Senkakus on Jan. 7, Beijing responded with an announcement that its State Oceanic Administration would conduct "regular patrols" near the islands. On Thursday, Chinese fighter jets were spotted near Japan's airspace, according to the Japanese media, prompting scrambles by the Air Self-Defense Force.
Asked to comment on a recent Japanese media report that air force jets might be allowed to fire warning shots at Chinese planes entering Japanese airspace, Gen. Iwasaki said Japan would follow procedures set by the International Civil Aviation Organization to respond to such cases. He didn't elaborate further.
Gen. Iwasaki stressed, however, that Japan intends to rely on its civilian coast guard ships to patrol the sensitive waters, while keeping its military naval ships at a distance to avoid escalation of the confrontation. "I think the hurdle is high for the deployment of the Maritime SDF," he said.
To prevent unintended scuffles from escalating into full-scale crises, he added, Japan and China should establish a maritime contact mechanism and agree on a procedure to contact each other in case of an emergency. Bilateral talks on such steps have been suspended since last fall.
"We have never closed our window for dialogue and defense exchanges," Gen. Iwasaki said. "We are ready for such steps whenever they are."
A version of this article appeared January 14, 2013, on page A11 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Japanese General Seeks To Reinforce Defenses.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 65346.html