Normalizing Japan

From Japan’s latest reaction to the Somalia pirate event and the North Korea missile launch we can see how incapable and immobile of Japan Self-Defense Forces are, it once again raise concern not only over it’s relation to the Japan society and the rest of the world but also their ability to actually protect Japanese soil. As we move toward to 2010s, I believe is time to normalizing Japan, it should abolish or at least make an amendment to its Article 9 of National Constitution.

Since the end of World War 2, Japanese people are living in the shadow of having no official army force. The Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution that came into effect 62 years ago which not only forbids Japanese people obtain any land, sea and air forces as well as any other armed forces with war potential (in other word Japan could have no military at all), it also stripped the right of using forces as means of settling international disputes. So the Japan Self-Defense Forces(JSDF) are only the extension of the National Police by law, it’s one of the reasons why Japan cannot obtain a permanent membership on the U.N. Security Council even with U.S. full support.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan-Maguire is worried about by revise the Japan Constitution that will trigger an arms race and threaten the safety of the region. Japan unlike any other countries, it lies right next to the largest communist country in the world, it have Russia in the north which technically still at war with and not to mention also the Koreans with it’s lack of transparency nuclear program and launching missiles over Japan every few years. So in fact it should be the other way around, as U.S. military power in the Asian Pacific region being challenge, Japan should take more responsibility in protecting the region safety, firstly by amend it’s Constitution to legalize it’s SDF. Countries like Australia already began its military build-up in respond to American failure, so Japan really should follow Australia and expand the Asia pacific alliance even further.

Taiwan, which was Japanese colony for 50 years, is also another reason why Japan should abandon its Article 9. China (People Republic of China) has always-isolate Taiwan on every international stage, from political meetings to sport events. Despite of the fact that tension between the two governments are cooling down in recent months since Taiwanese (Republic of China) President Ma Ying Jeou took office, China’s latest white paper still put Taiwan as it’s top military focus, more than 1400 missiles are now pointed at Taiwan which doubled from year 2005 and it still insisted to take over Taiwan by force if necessary. The peace and balance of Asian Pacific region are the common concerns for all countries that included Japan, so it should be allowed for provide assistance to Taiwan if required.

According to a survey in year 2006, it show the majority of Japanese public against a revision to the Article 9, but also note another poll conducted during former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi period, show more than 57% of respondents are actually supported SDF operate oversea, also polls show as high as 75% of the public supported the dispatch to the Persian Gulf in the 90s, so we understand the public are behind SDF, they have no problem with SDF operate oversea. The reason why the public are against a revision now is because the government are not stable, 4 different prime ministers in 4 years really giving a negative impact to the public, current Prime Minister Taro Aso also had the third lowest supporting rate ever. Japanese people are not interested in politics in general, so they are happy to let the government do all the work for them. I believe as soon as someone can stabilize the government, revision of The Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution won’t be far away, it will win majority of support from the public and lead to the normalization of Japan.