Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba stressed Wednesday in Tokyo that Japan's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) should take a flexible strategy in the future to respond to new threats and play a more active role in the world as the force is celebrating its 50th anniversary.  

Flanked by former and incumbent Defense Agency and SDF senior officials, Koizumi addressed a commemorative ceremony at the Defense Agency. He vowed to make active contribution to the global peace and praised the performance of the SDF personnel stationed in Iraq.

"Nowadays, the world is confronted with new threats, including terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We must review our defense capability and take a flexible approach to deal with the new security environment," Koizumi said.

Tokyo is working on a draft of National Defense Program Outline that is expected to take shape at the end of this year.

The outline is aimed to enable Japan to establish a more flexible defense mechanism, featuring missions against new threats like terrorism.

The current policy centered on possessing the minimum necessary defense capability against limited foreign attacks.

The international contribution such as peacekeeping operations would be upgraded to the principal mission from the current collateral status, according to Japanese media reports.

To that end, Japan will move toward to set up special forces for overseas missions and terrorist and guerrilla wars. Heavy equipment, such as artillery and tanks, will be curtailed.

Meanwhile, intelligence gathering and analysis capability are to be beefed up.

Defense Agency officials also are arguing for an elimination of target figures for troops and equipment, saying such figures impede a flexible military buildup, Major Asahi Shimbun said.

Citing the risk of ballistic missile attacks, Tokyo plans to spend billions of US dollars to introduce US SM-3 and PAC-3 air defense missile systems as early as the end of 2005.

The National Defense Program Outline document, dating back to 1976, lays out the mission and scale of the SDF. It was revised in 1995 following the end of the Cold War.

Ishiba said at the ceremony that the SDF should find solutions to pending issues -- How to safeguard Japan's national interests in face of threats that the current deterrence may not effectively deal with; how to fulfill Japan's responsibility as a member of international community and as the United States is adjusting its global strategy, what Japan should do on the basis of the Japan-US security arrangement.

"I must say it is an extremely difficult task to break away from the conventional concept of deterrence and one-country pacifism and also have those who might threaten us understand" that they would not win a fight against Japan or the Japan-US security system, he said.

"This is the very reason why I ask you to examine whether the legislation, operation and equipment are most effective in their current states," Ishiba said.

He also glorified SDF members for their operations in the world, ranging from East Timor to Iraq.

Evolving for 50 years, the SDF is now able to engage more than a defense battle. Relatively modest in scale as the SDF is, the personnel are well-trained and equipped with high-quality weapons. The defense budget for the world's second-largest economy reached approximately 4,900 billion yen (US$44.5 billion) in 2004, next only to the United States.

Given Japan's aggression in the World War II, it's post-war pacifist constitution renounces "war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes," and says any war potential "will never be maintained". The basic law also denies the right of belligerency of the state.

Japan, however, has been rolling out legislations to circumvent the barrier to make the SDF play a freer and expanded role. The SDF's minesweepers were sent to the Arabian Sea after the first Gulf War in 1991, signaling the first offshore operation for the defense-oriented force. In the following years, the SDF went to more places by taking part in UN peacekeeping efforts.

Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, Japan decided to cooperate with US military in fighting terrorism, finding a new approach to unleash its military potential. Under related laws, warships and supply vessels were later dispatched to the Indian Ocean to provide US-led forces with logistic support.

Japan adopted a package of contingency laws in 2003 and 2004. The legislations strengthened the commanding power of the prime minister over the SDF and endowed Japan with the pre-emptive strike capabilities.

Authorized by a controversial special law, more than 500 ground troops entered into Iraq's southern city of Samawah early this year to engage in a one-year rebuilding mission in southern Iraq. They are backed up by as much air and maritime troops in Kuwait in the largest overseas operation in the SDF history.

Calling for revising the constitution is rising. A latest poll by Kyodo News Service showed that up to 84 percent of Japanese lawmakers support to revise the war-renouncing constitution. Koizumi had made it clear that Japan should have an army rather than merely a defense force.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2004)