Japan should bolster marine force, defense review paper says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Japan should bolster its marine force and introduce surveillance drones, a defense review paper says, highlighting concerns over China and North Korea, according to BBC News.

Units that could be dispatched quickly to remote islands were needed, the document said, and equipment to detect "at an early stage signs of changes in the security situation".

The report comes amid ongoing tensions with China over disputed islands. It also flagged up the need for better defenses against missile attacks.

North Korea conducted what was widely seen as a long-range missile test in December 2012 and followed up with its third test of a nuclear device in February 2013.

China, meanwhile, is locked in a dispute with Japan over East China Sea islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. Japan controls the islands but Chinese ships have been sailing in and out of what Japan says are its territorial waters since late last year, as tensions increased.

On Wednesday, July 24 Japan scrambled fighter jets after a Chinese government plane flew in international air space near the islands.

China said it was on a routine training mission; Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it was "an unusual action that we have never seen before".

The interim report is part of a defense review ordered by Abe, with final proposals due by December.

On Sunday, Abe won back control of Japan's Upper House, meaning he now controls parliament and would be in a stronger position to reshape Japan's current defense strategy.

Under its post-war constitution, Japan is blocked from the use of force to resolve conflicts except in the case of self-defense. But Abe has indicated he would like to broaden the scope of activities that Japan's military are allowed to engage in.

In addition to proposals concerning marines and drones, the report calls for a strengthened ability to "to deter and respond to ballistic missiles". "Japan needs to enhance its ability to respond to ballistic missile attacks in a comprehensive manner," Kyodo news agency quoted the report as saying.

But officials have been keen to emphasize that this does not mean Japan is eyeing pre-emptive strikes on enemy targets.

"It is necessary to consider whether we should have the option to strike an enemy's missile launch facilities," an unidentified defense ministry official told Reuters. "But we are not at all thinking about initiating attacks on enemy bases when we are not under attack."