Japan plays up defense to 'justify buildup'

Tokyo's policymakers and advisers are playing up the concept of a "remote islands defense" as an excuse to build up Japan's military, observers warned.

A group of Japanese government advisers suggested that Tokyo use its Self-Defense Forces if remote islands to Japan's southwest are attacked or seized by foreign countries, Japan's leading newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, said on Sunday.

Japan's NHK Television revealed on Saturday a Japanese Defense Ministry plan to establish a new amphibious combat unit for defending the islands.

The advisers, led by Shunji Yanai, the former Japanese ambassador to the United States, said armed attacks against the islands are still "not included in the scope of situations fit for exercising self-defense rights" under Japan's pacifist Constitution.

Tokyo has long included China's Diaoyu Islands, in the East China Sea, within its definition of "remote islands".

The advisers suggested Tokyo make further legislative preparations to deal with this "gray area" in the law and permit military deployment in the event of attacks against the islands.

Huo Jiangang, a Japanese studies researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, warned that Japan is hyping a hypothetical concern over the islands.

"Actually, these days, no country will attack Japan, and China never has had such an intention. Playing up external threats is just part of Tokyo's plan to lift its ban on military buildups," Huo said.

To facilitate landing operations, the Japanese Defense Ministry plans to buy six AAV7 amphibious vehicles, said NHK, the national television broadcaster.

In July, the Defense Ministry also unveiled an interim report about revising the National Defense Policy Guidelines. In the report, Tokyo is considering enhancing the defense of the southwestern remote islands and said it is "necessary" to achieve a landing operation capacity like the US army's.

Tokyo's latest military buildup progress, including the inauguration of the Japanese cruiser Izumo, signals a more assertive Japanese military strategy, said Yang Bojiang, a Japanese studies expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Japanese political elite have designed a strategy for reviving the country, and Japan is now seeking a turnaround in strategic security," Yang said.

In the annual defense white paper released in July, Tokyo highlighted China as a major "threat to maritime security", and mapped out a detailed contingency plan for retaking the remote islands.

Japanese studies researcher Huo said Japan's hawikish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has emphasized revising the country's defense guidelines, and his ruling Cabinet is sparing no effort to win support for a military buildup.

"Tokyo expects to pick up speed on this issue," Huo said.

Meanwhile, Japan's coast guard is planning to expand on a large scale to deal with the situation in the Diaoyu Islands, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported on Saturday.

According to a proposed 2014 budget, Japan's coast guard is expecting another 600 to 700 new members.

The expanded recruitment is aimed at "the enduring islands standoff between Japan and China", the newspaper said.

Boats carrying about 20 members of a Japanese nationalist group headed back to port on Sunday after sailing near the Diaoyu Islands after Japan's coast guard crews in rubber boats urged them through loudspeakers to leave, Reuters reported.

The five ships, carrying members of the Ganbare Nippon ("Stand Firm, Japan") group, were surrounded by about 10 Japanese coast guard vessels when they were within 1 nautical mile of the islands on Sunday morning.

China's government vessels have enhanced patrols around the islands after the Japanese government unilaterally "nationalized" parts of the islands in September.

The trip by the right-wing Japanese group comes days after Abe sent an offering for the war dead to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine - seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism - on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.