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Hagel vows defense commitments to Japan, including nuclear umbrella
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday stressed U.S. defense commitments to Japan, including the nuclear umbrella, in the face of growing missile threats from North Korea, while reiterating that Washington is against any action to weaken Japan’s administrative control of the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
During a joint press conference following a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera at the Pentagon, Hagel said, « The United States remains steadfast in our defense commitments to Japan, including extended deterrence and a further nuclear umbrella. »
The two defense ministers agreed to continue close cooperation between Japan and the United States as well as in a trilateral framework involving South Korea.
« The most obvious threat to stability in the region is the provocative behavior of North Korea, » Hagel said, adding he and Onodera made progress on plans to deploy a second X-band radar system, capable of tracking the trajectory of ballistic missiles, to Japan.
After aiming bellicose rhetoric against the United States and its allies in March and early April, North Korea has become relatively silent recently, but Onodera said that he has not received any information that would allow Japan to lower its level of alertness against Pyongyang.
On the dispute between Japan and China over the Senkaku Islands, Hagel said, « The United States does not take a position on the overall sovereignty of the islands but we do recognize they are under the administration of Japan and fall under our security treaty allocations. »
Warning that any actions that could raise tensions or lead to miscalculations would affect the stability of East Asia, he said the United States « opposes any unilateral course of action that seeks to undermine Japan’s administrative control » of the islets.
Onodera said he briefed the U.S. defense chief about Tokyo’s position that the Senkaku Islands are Japanese territory in terms of history and international law.
« We will firmly protect our land, waters and air, » Onodera said.
Hagel’s remarks on the islands is likely to relieve concerns about U.S. backing for Tokyo’s position given the view that the United States is trying to avoid causing unnecessary tensions with China, a key strategic partner.
During their first face-to-face meeting, Onodera and Hagel also agreed on the need to step up bilateral defense cooperation, including reviewing the 1997 guidelines on bilateral defense cooperation.
« Minister Onodera and I also engaged in strategic discussions about the future of the alliance, » Hagel said. « Our staffs have been working for some time on a review of roles, missions and capabilities to inform any revisions to the defense guidelines that underpin our alliance cooperation. »
Onodera told the press conference that it will take several years to complete the review of the bilateral defense guidelines.
The two ministers also announced the launch of a defense working group on areas such as surveillance and reconnaissance as part of efforts to beef up bilateral cooperation.
Noting that the Japan-U.S. alliance is the cornerstone of regional security and prosperity, Hagel said, « Strengthening our security alliance is also critical to achieving the goal of the U.S. rebalance, enhancing prosperity and promoting peace and stability in the region. »
On the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, Hagel stressed the importance of implementing the bilateral agreement to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture.
« Its implementation in concert with moving ahead on the Futenma replacement facility will ensure we maintain the right mix of capabilities in the region as we reduce our footprint on Okinawa and strengthen this alliance for the future, » he said.
Onodera also said the base relocation and the return of land used by U.S. forces south of the U.S. Kadena air base are « important steps for significantly mitigating the impact on Okinawa. »
The defense minister said he invited Hagel to visit Japan this year and that they agreed to hold a two-plus-two meeting of foreign and defense ministers from the two countries, preferably this year.
The two defense chiefs also reaffirmed that the United States will ship 12 MV-22 Osprey transport aircraft to the U.S. Iwakuni Air Station in western Japan this summer prior to their eventual deployment to the Futenma base in Okinawa.
Kyodo News, April 30, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130430p2g00m0dm006000c.html
Japan’s SDF to attend U.S. drill involving recapture of island
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday about 1,000 officers of the nation’s Self-Defense Forces will participate in a U.S. drill to be held in California in June involving recapturing control of an isolated island.
It will be the first time for SDF personnel to participate in such a drill on the U.S. mainland.
Japan’s participation could trigger a backlash from China as the Defense Ministry has been strengthening its capability to protect isolated islands amid soured ties with China over territorial issues surrounding the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, experts on defense issues said.
A Defense Ministry official said the drill will not be premised on regaining control of an island from a specific country and the SDF will attend the training in the United States simply because it is a suitable place.
Officers of the Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces will attend the drill to be implemented in U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and San Clemente Island, while the Japanese maritime force will dispatch its Hyuga helicopter destroyer.
The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Marines implemented a similar drill there in February.
Kyodo News, April 24, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130424p2g00m0dm038000c.html
Japan to ask France not to sell chopper equipment to China
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida will meet with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Tokyo next week and will ask the European country to refrain from selling helicopter landing equipment to China, amid a maritime standoff between Japan and China, government officials said Thursday.
During the meeting on Tuesday, Kishida plans to tell Fabius that China is likely to install the equipment on maritime surveillance vessels that have repeatedly entered Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, the officials said.
France has taken the position that the equipment is not for military use and is based on civilian technology, thereby complying with an EU ban on arms sales to China.
Kyodo News, May 03, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130503p2g00m0dm002000c.html
8 Chinese vessels enter Japan’s territorial waters around Senkakus
NAHA, Japan (Kyodo) — Eight Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entered Japanese territorial waters Tuesday around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, the Japan Coast Guard said.
It is the biggest number of Chinese ships to enter the Japanese waters near the Senkakus since Tokyo purchased from a Japanese owner last September a major part of the uninhabited islands, called Diaoyu in China, according to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Chinese ambassador and lodged a protest over the ships’ activity.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a press conference, « It is extremely regrettable and unacceptable that Chinese state ships continue to engage in intrusion. We are protesting strictly through our diplomatic channels. »
The intrusion comes after some 10 fishing boats carrying members of a Japanese conservative political group left Ishigaki Island in Okinawa and headed toward the Senkakus on Monday night.
Suga said he was not in a position to know China’s intent, but added he did not believe the ships’ activity had anything to do with recent visits to a war-linked shrine by some Japanese Cabinet members.
Japan’s surveillance vessels have warned the Chinese ships to leave the waters after they entered the area in succession between 7:20 a.m. and 8:25 a.m.
Two Chinese fishery surveillance vessels have also been spotted sailing in the contiguous zone outside the territorial waters around the islets, added the coast guard.
Bilateral relations have been frayed over conflicting claims to the islands.
Kyodo News, April 23, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130423p2g00m0dm064000c.html
3 Chinese vessels enter Japanese waters around Senkakus
NAHA, Japan (Kyodo) — Three Chinese maritime surveillance vessels entered Japanese territorial waters around Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea on Friday, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The Haijian 23, 46 and 51 were spotted entering the area near the Japanese-controlled islands between 9:50 a.m. and 10:10 a.m. and have been ordered to leave, according to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture.
It was the 41st intrusion by Chinese government ships since Japan brought the uninhabited islands, called Diaoyu in China, under state control last September.
On Tuesday, eight Chinese maritime surveillance vessels — the largest number since September — entered Japanese waters, according to the coast guard.
Kyodo News, April 26, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130426p2g00m0dm049000c.html
Senior Japanese, Chinese officials to discuss territorial row
TOKYO (Kyodo) — Senior Japanese and Chinese defense officials will meet Friday evening in Beijing to discuss how best to avert an accidental military clash over a bilateral territorial row in the East China Sea, the Japanese defense minister said.
Itsunori Onodera told a news conference they « will exchange opinions concerning a seaborne communications mechanism and the regional situation. »
He indicated they will discuss an arrangement to prevent an accidental clash between Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and the Chinese military over the territorial row involving the Senkaku Islands, as well as discuss the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons and missiles.
Hideshi Tokuchi, director general of the Defense Ministry’s Policy Bureau, flew into Beijing on Thursday for talks with his Chinese counterpart.
Official talks between senior Japanese and Chinese officials had been stalled since anti-Japan sentiment flared up in China last September when the Japanese government purchased the main part of the uninhabited Japanese-administered islands, claimed by China and Taiwan.
Kyodo News, April 25, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130425p2g00m0dm040000c.html
Chinese ships make fresh foray into Japanese waters
Three Chinese government ships entered Japanese territorial waters Friday, the coast guard said, days after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to expel any Chinese landing on disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The maritime surveillance ships entered the 12-nautical-mile zone off the Senkaku Islands, which China calls Diaoyu, around 10 a.m., the Japan Coast Guard said in a statement.
On Tuesday, eight Chinese vessels sailed into the disputed waters, the biggest flotilla to sail there in a single day since Tokyo effectively nationalized the island chain in September.
To diffuse the tension, senior Japanese and Chinese defense officials were to meet Friday evening in Beijing to discuss how best to avert a spontaneous military clash.
AFP-Jiji Press, April 27, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/04/27/national/chinese-ships-make-fresh-foray-into-japanese-waters/#.UYR2TEpOj1U
Japan, China defense officials eye maritime hotline
BEIJING — Japanese and Chinese military officials met Friday in Beijing to find ways to prevent an accidental clash and other contingencies in the East China Sea as Beijing tries harder to assert its claim over the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands, a Japanese defense official said.
Details of the meeting were not immediately known, but a Japanese delegation led by Hideshi Tokuchi, director general of the ministryÅfs Defense Policy Bureau, is believed to have urged China to build a bilateral maritime communications mechanism for crisis management, at an early date.
It was not known whether Japan raised the radar-lock issue, the incident in which a Chinese warship locked its weapons-guidance radar onto Japanese warship near the Senkakus in January.
Japanese and Chinese defense officials havenÅft had any official contact since Japan essentially nationalized the Senkaku chain by buying an additional number of islands from their private Japanese owners in last September.
The group of uninhabited and undeveloped islands are claimed by China and Taiwan, which call them Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively.
Earlier Friday, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters in Tokyo the two sides Ågwill exchange opinions on a maritime communications mechanism and the regional situation.Åh
Onodera said the agenda would include steps to prevent an accidental clash between the Self-Defense Forces and ChinaÅfs PeopleÅfs Liberation Army in the East China Sea. He also said the two sides would compare notes on the latest developments in North KoreaÅfs nuclear weapons and missile programs.
Kyodo News, April 27, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/04/27/national/japan-china-defense-officials-eye-maritime-hotline/#.UYR3X0pOj1U
China officially labels Senkakus a « core interest »
BEIJING — The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced for the first time Friday that China regards the Senkaku Islands a « core interest. »
« The Diaoyu Islands are about sovereignty and territorial integrity. Of course, it’s China’s core interest, » ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press conference, using China’s name for the Japanese-administered isles in the East China Sea. Taiwan claims the isles as the Tiaoyutai.
China usually uses the term when addressing such issues as Taiwan, Tibet and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Now Beijing has clarified that it also pertains to the Senkakus.
The statement suggests that China does not intend to make any concessions on the islets, which it claims have been its inherent territory since ancient times.
Hua made the comment after Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NHK in Tokyo that Chinese officials repeatedly told him during his visit to Beijing earlier in the week that the Senkakus are « one of China’s core interests. »
Japan, which has administered the islands for decades, maintains the Senkakus are an integral part of its territory and that there is no territorial dispute over them.
Kyodo News, April 27, 2013
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/04/27/national/china-officially-labels-senkakus-a-core-interest/#.UYR4I0pOj1U
Shimane to issue new fishing rights for waters around Takeshima
MATSUE, Japan (Kyodo) — Shimane Prefecture decided Tuesday to issue new Japanese fishing rights for waters around the South Korea-controlled Takeshima Islands claimed by Japan, even though no Japanese fishing operations have taken place around the islands since June 1954.
The 10-year rights may be issued for fishing cooperatives of the Oki Islands in the Sea of Japan after the present rights expire at the end of August, prefectural officials said.
The prefecture has provided the rights to mainly catch abalone, collect turban shells and harvest brown seaweed around the islands, called Dokdo in South Korea, since 1953.
It will receive applications for new fishing rights between May 15 and July 12.
The prefecture plans to continue issuing fishing rights to allow Japanese fishing operations to be resumed there as soon as the bilateral territorial dispute over the islands is solved.
Kyodo News, April 24, 2013
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20130424p2g00m0dm042000c.html
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