information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
24 Janvier 2015
Jan 19th 2015 | TOKYO | Asia
SHINZO Abe, Japan’s prime minister, returned to power in 2012 vowing to reverse years of decline in military spending. He has, for the third year running, kept that pledge. Last week his government passed a record defence package worth ¥4.98 trillion ($42 billion), topping the previous peak set in 2002 and marking Japan’s third straight annual rise.
The military shopping list includes 30 amphibious vehicles, three unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and six high-tech F-35A stealth fighters. Japan’s defence minister, Gen Nakatani, cited the “changing situation around Japan” as the reason for the hike—now familiar shorthand for the turbo-charged rise of China. Defence officials say they are playing catch-up with China’s military budget, which has multiplied 30 times over the past decade, while Japan’s spending has shrunk. The new hardware will help beef up defences on Japan’s remote outlying islands, including the Senkakus, claimed by China, which calls them the Diaoyu islands.
The budget tags money for a radar base on the tiny frontier island of Yonaguni too, the closest Japanese territory to mainland China. The defence ministry also wants to build up an amphibious assault force, modelled on that of America’s marines, to retake remote territory from enemy hands in the event of an attack—part of a strategic shift to Japan’s south and south-west.
But one of the centrepieces of this strategy could unravel there too, in Okinawa prefecture. A thousand miles southwest of Tokyo, its main island hosts three-quarters of the American army’s footprint in Japan. Takashi Onaga, the prefecture’s new governor, has tapped into a rich vein of resentment against this heavy presence by promising to block construction of an American military base backed by the governments of Japan and America. Resentment is focused on the Futenma air base, sat on a big chunk of land right in the centre of crowded Ginowan city.
The facility has generated decades of complaints about noise and crime. In 2006 the two governments agreed to close the aging facility and build a new base near the sleepy fishing village of Henoko, in Okinawa’s less-populated north. But the agreement has proved controversial. Opponents insist Futenma be moved out of Okinawa, part of a bigger demand that Japan’s mainland share the burden of the country’s military alliance with America. Local opinion polls suggest four-fifths oppose building it off Henoko. Elderly activists have begun blocking trucks from entering the construction site.
Mr Abe’s latest budget cut general spending to Okinawa by ¥16 billion, while allocating ¥147 billion to pay for the Futenma relocation and other projects linked to America’s army. That is a sign that he intends to face down opposition to the new base and reinforce Japan’s ties with its American ally, which plans to shift over half its navy to the Pacific by 2020. Mr Onaga, for his part, is under growing pressure to align himself with the protesters. Opponents of the Yonaguni base will vote in a referendum on February 22nd. It could be the last gasp of Okinawa’s ageing pacifists, or the start of something more serious for Mr Abe.