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Japan's Revised Law Allows Defence Chief to Order Missile- Interception

Posted on: Friday, 22 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

Excerpt from report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Tokyo, 22 July: Japan's parliament enacted a revised law Friday [22 July] to enable the Defence Agency chief to order missile interceptions in emergencies without waiting for approval from the prime minister and the Cabinet, setting the stage for Japan's plan to introduce a missile defence system in 2007.

In a plenary session, the House of Councillors passed a bill to add provisions on missile defence to the Self-Defence Forces Law with a majority vote by the ruling coalition Friday afternoon. The bill already passed the House of Representatives in June.

Under a new article on measures to intercept ballistic missiles, if signs of an imminent missile attack are detected such as the injection of liquid fuel into missile launchers, the Defence Agency chief will seek permission from the prime minister to deploy the missile shield, including Aegis vessels, and the SDF will launch interceptor missiles if the enemy fires missiles towards Japan.

However, if there are no clear signs of a launch but conditions call for high alert and there is no time to seek consent, the agency chief can mobilize the SDF to stand by for any sudden attack and order an intercept under emergency guidelines approved in advance by the prime minister.

"We must prepare a missile defence system to counter a very new threat," Defence Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono told a press conference Friday morning. "If a missile comes flying towards Japan, we must shoot it down to protect the lives and assets of our citizens before responding with defence mobilization."

While Ono refrained from specifying potential missile threats towards Japan, he mentioned as an example that there are various discussions involving North Korea running missile and nuclear development programmes.

"But this kind of threat must be dealt with first through diplomatic negotiations as a matter of course. I think it is most important for North Korea to return to the six-party talks and that the missile and nuclear issues are properly discussed there," Ono said. [Passage omitted]

The new law requires the prime minister to swiftly report the results to parliament after an interception is implemented.

Japan is engaged in joint research with the United States on a sea-based missile defence system and the two sides have agreed to move it to the development stage in Japan's fiscal 2006, which starts April 1 next year.

The Diet also endorsed revisions to a related law Friday to reorganize the SDF under a unified command by setting up a joint staff for command of the air, ground and maritime forces. The Defence Agency plans to introduce the new structure by next March.

Currently, there is one chief of staff commanding each SDF branch, while the chairman of the Joint Staff Council only coordinates among the three branches.

Under the revision, the post of joint command chief will be created to replace the Joint Staff Council chairman and will have operational command of all three forces. The three chiefs of staff will be in charge of other issues such as training and defence capability buildup in their branches.

Apparently with North Korea in mind, the Defence Agency has called for expedited procedures for intercept orders, saying ballistic missiles can reach Japan in about 10 minutes and there would be no time to wait for approval from the Cabinet and the Security Council of Japan.

Japan plans to start deploying ground-based Patriot Advanced Capability 3 interceptor missiles by March 2007 and the Standard Missile 3 to be mounted on Aegis vessels by March 2008.

Japan began the joint missile defence research with the United States in 1999 after North Korea launched in 1998 what Japan believes to be a ballistic missile, part of which passed over Japanese territory.

Japan's engagement in missile defence is a sensitive issue given the country's pacifist Constitution, which renounces war and the possession of any offensive weapons.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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