Japan military plan ruffles feathers
- Source: Global Times
- [00:43 July 03 2009]
- Comments
By Zuo Xuan
Japan’s defense ministry is considering deploying troops to an island in the East China Sea near the Diaoyu Islands, AFP quoted a ministry spokesman as saying yesterday.
“We are studying (the deployment) so it can be included in the planned year-end revision of the basic defense program,” the official said, confirming a news report on the plan to send an army unit to Yonaguni Island.
When asked for China’s response to the news at a regular press conference yesterday, Qin Gang, spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said China hopes Japan’s move will be conducive to peace and stability in the region.
Wu Haizhong, a specialist on Japanese studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that Japan’s strategy on security and safety has put more emphasis on military function since the beginning of the 21st century, especially since the outbreak of the nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
“Japan has claimed to enhance strategic dialogue with China. What they plan to do now does not match their previous announcement,” Wu added.
Yonaguni is located 120 km east of China’s Taiwan province and 170 km south of China’s uninhabited Diaoyu Islands.
The ministry official said the location of military deployments along a chain of islands between the southern tip of Japan’s Kyushu Island and Taiwan is “an important factor in the nation’s defense deployment.”
“Yonaguni is closer to Taiwan than to Okinawa,” Wu said. “They have to think twice before jumping because this move will easily cause tensions from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.”
Japan’s current southernmost deployment of troops is in Naha on the main island of Okinawa, 500 km northeast of Yonaguni, according to the defense ministry.
The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper described the planned move as part of Japan’s shift in its defense focus from its northern borders during the Cold War era to the country’s southwestern borders.
Agencies contributed to this story