JAPAN'S NON-ARMY

JAPAN'S NON-ARMY
Toronto Globe and Mail: Article 9 of Japan's pacifist constitution states unequivocally that "land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained."
In practice, though, Japan maintains one of the biggest armed forces in the world, with a quarter of a million troops, 1,000 tanks, 16 submarines and more than 300 fighter planes (but no bombers, ballistic missiles or aircraft carriers). To cover the contradiction, Japan refers to its army, navy and air forces as the Self-Defense Forces, an unconvincing euphemism for a thoroughly modern war machine.
Japan's new Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, finds all this "absurd." Speaking to reporters last month, he said: "Every country has a military to protect itself from invasion. It is unnatural to call the Self-Defense Forces anything other than a military." If Koizumi had his way, Japan would amend its constitution to enable it to field a full-fledged army and call it an army.
Wartime militarism: That alarms Japan's pacifist-minded left-wing politicians. The opposition Social Democratic and Communist parties both oppose amending the constitution, as does nearly three-quarters of the Japanese public. Neighboring countries such as South Korea and China are also concerned, fearing a return of Japan's wartime militarism.
Their fears are understandable, but groundless. Modern Japan is a peaceable country with no territorial ambitions and a healthy abhorrence of armed conflict. Koizumi merely wants to give Japan a right that every other sovereign country enjoys: the right to maintain a self-declared army of its own. It lacks that right only because the Americans who wrote the constitution during the postwar U.S. occupation wanted to prevent their defeated foe from rising again.
But the Americans do not fear that any more. U.S. policymakers have said for years that Japan should shoulder a greater share of its own self-defense costs. They would also like Japan, the world's second richest nation, to contribute to regional and global defense. Japanese help would have been welcome during the Persian Gulf war of 1991 and the East Timor intervention of 1999.
North Korea worries: Japan has legitimate defense concerns of its own, too. North Korea frightened the Japanese by test-firing a ballistic missile over the Japanese islands in 1998. China, the regional superpower and a historical rival of Japan's, is spending heavily on building up its military power.
Obviously, Japan must be careful not to step on the toes of its regional neighbors. It should also learn to confront its wartime record more directly. Too many Japanese leaders seem to think their country was blameless. But nearly 60 years have passed since Pearl Harbor. Japan is a stable, responsible member of the international community. It should be able to call its army an army.