Gov't to delay adoption of new defense guidelines by 1 yr

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TOKYO, Oct. 16 Kyodo -
The government decided Friday to delay by one year the adoption of new defense
policy guidelines and a medium-term defense buildup plan to allow more time for
discussions and to fully reflect the policies of the Democratic Party of Japan
and its coalition partners.
The National Defense Program Guidelines defining Japan's basic security policy
were scheduled to be updated by the end of this year to cover the fiscal
2010-2014 period and the buildup plan based on the guidelines was set to be
adopted at the same time under the previous government led by the Liberal
Democratic Party.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama instructed Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa to
review the defense policy guidelines following ''the historic change of
government,'' according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano.
Hirano told a press conference that the government will establish a panel of
experts and study how to update the guidelines by the end of 2010 by heeding
their views and said that reviewing the guidelines is ''an important task
concerning the safety of the country.''
Kitazawa told reporters after a Cabinet committee meeting on the guidelines,
''We want to take plenty of time to craft a new defense outline that will
indicate the Hatoyama Cabinet's policies.''
''Time is limited for discussions and we don't have to decide on important
(defense) matters this year,'' he said.
Kitazawa said the new government will not follow the previous LDP-led
government's way of ''leaving all the discussions to experts'' in updating the
guidelines last renewed in 2004.
In August, a panel of defense experts called for easing Japan's ban on weapons
exports and sought a change in the interpretation of the nation's pacifist
Constitution to ensure Tokyo has the right to exercise collective self-defense.
Such a hawkish stance is unacceptable to some members of the Social Democratic
Party, one of the DPJ's two coalition partners, which opposes revising the
war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.
While the nine experts chosen by the LDP-led government included Tsunehisa
Katsumata, chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co., and former Japanese Ambassador
to the United States Ryozo Kato, Hirano said the DPJ-led government will pick
members of the expert panel ''from a new perspective.''
Kitazawa said that the government will not allow a ''blank period'' in the
nation's security policy and that Hatoyama will soon present an alternative
provisional defense plan so that the lack of the guidelines and the buildup
plan will not cause any problems in formulating the country's fiscal 2010
defense budget.
The defense guidelines, which set out Japan's long-term security policies, were
first adopted in 1976 and amended in 1995 and 2004. The current guidelines
covering the five-year period through fiscal 2009 ending next March state that
they are to be revised by December this year.
The medium-term buildup plan, which discloses troop numbers and expenditure
levels related to defense matters, is compiled in accordance with the
guidelines as part of efforts to increase the transparency of the country's
defense capabilities.
The present guidelines stipulate the need for Japan to build more
multifunctional, flexible and practical defense capabilities in response to new
threats such as terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
==Kyodo
2009-10-16 22:57:12