Urgent Statement of the Japan Scientists’ Association on Japan's new military expansion plans

I am a member of the Japan Scientists’ Association. The "Peace Research Committee" to which I belong, recently issued an emergency statement dated December 14 on Japan's new military expansion plans. Below is its English translation (private version).
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To whom it may concern

Urgent Statement
Do Not Allow the Cabinet Decision on the Three Documents of the New National Security Strategy, which Pillars of the New National Security Strategy are the Major Military Expansion!
- We express our outrage at the government's and ruling party's policy of using special income tax for reconstruction and construction bonds in the budget. -

December 14, 2022
Peace Research Committee, the Japan Scientists’ Association

On November 22, the "Council of Experts for a Comprehensive Study of Defense as a National Power," a meeting convened by Prime Minister Kishida without specifying criteria or methods for selecting its members, issued a "report" addressed to itself, i.e., Prime Minister Kishida, as if it were a one-man show. The report recommended that, based on the premise that "Japan should respond to the severe security environment surrounding the country by combining all possible policy measures with the combined strength of the nation," it is essential to drastically strengthen defense capabilities in response to the drastic change in the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific region and the rapid increase in both quality and quantity of nuclear missile capabilities by neighboring countries. The Ministry of Defense also proposed the following seven pillars for drastically strengthening defense capabilities: (1) standoff defense capability, (2) comprehensive missile defense capability, (3) unmanned asset defense capability, (4) cross-area operational capability, (5) command and control and intelligence-related capabilities, (6) mobile deployment capability, (7) following the policy of sustainability and resilience, citing the possession and enhancement of an enemy base attack capability (counterattack capability) as a deterrent and the maintenance of a succession of warfighting capabilities. In this way, it encouraged the LDP and the government to pursue a policy of major military expansion. It also urged the submission of three new national security strategy documents to be comprehensively addressed by the nation as a whole.

In response, the government is proceeding with the formulation of three documents: the National Security Strategy (NSS), the National Defense Strategy (NDS, current outline), Defense Force Development Plan (current Medium-Term Defense Force Development Plan), with a full draft of the framework reported on December 9 and a Cabinet decision expected on December 16. The National Defense Strategy (roughly 10 years), which is modeled after the above report, has seven pillars as "I Integrated Air and Missile Defense: IAMD", and Prime Minister Kishida has already instructed that the Defense Force Development Plan, which will replace the Mid-term Defense Plan, should have a budget of 43 trillion yen over the five years starting next fiscal year, looking 10 years into the future.

As a stand-off missile, the country will mass-produce and deploy a new domestic missile, the Type 12 Surface-to-Ship Guided Missile Capability Enhanced (improved from a hundred-plus kilometer range to 1,000 kilometers and capable of ground, ship, and air launch), which is estimated to cost about 5 trillion yen, but since production and deployment will take time, some reports indicate that 500 US-made Tomahawks (300 million yen per missile) cruise missiles will be purchased.

Enemy base attack capability is defined as "the self-defense capabilities, such as stand-off defense capabilities, that enable Japan to launch an effective counterattack in the territory of an opponent as the minimum necessary and unavoidable self-defense measure to prevent such an attack, in accordance with the "Three Requirements for the Use of Force" in the event of an attack by ballistic missiles or other weapons against Japan, according to the Asahi Shimbun (December 10, 2012).

However, the government has maintained until now that, when attacked by another country, the only possible response under the current Constitution is the "exclusive defense" (the minimum necessary counterattack and self-defense measures), and this has been the basis for its claim that the SDF is not a "force" as stipulated in Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution. Even if it is forcefully argued that the Self-Defense Forces are within the scope of the exclusive defense, it is clear that this is a 180-degree turnaround from the previous interpretation, and the Cabinet decision on the three documents, which include the enemy base attack capability that violates the Constitution, without any consultation with the Diet, is absolutely unacceptable and an unconstitutional act in itself.

In response to this extraordinary military expansion policy, we urgently demand the following:
(1) Stop the Cabinet decision on the three documents, which overturn the government's interpretation and clearly violate the Constitution.

(2) The government must not be allowed to arbitrarily decide military policy without deliberation by the Diet. The government must change the outrageous practice of arbitrarily deciding military policies that affect the lives and livelihood of the people without the involvement of the Diet, the supreme organ of state power.

(3) Tax hikes, "utilization" of the special income tax for reconstruction, and the policy of issuing construction bonds must not be allowed.
The government has indicated that it plans to finance its ballooning military budget with tax hikes and government bonds. Prime Minister Kishida's December 10 order to the ruling party to raise taxes and even consider "utilizing" the special income tax for reconstruction in order to cover the shortfall from increased defense spending is an outrage that cannot be tolerated. This is nothing less than a policy of abandonment of the people and a deception of the taxpayers in the midst of a situation in Fukushima, where the situation is still a whirlwind of voices saying that the recovery is still in progress. The extraordinary expansion of defense spending in the national budget will inevitably put pressure on the lives of citizens everywhere, including healthcare, social insurance, and education. After receiving criticism even from within the Cabinet and the ruling party, the government reportedly decided on December 13 to use construction bonds to pay for a portion of the maintenance of the Self-Defense Forces' facilities. It has been the consistent policy of the government and the ruling party not to use government bonds, including construction bonds, for defense expenditures, and this shift is a completely unexplainable outrage.

(4) Stop the general mobilization of national power for the military, which will surely lead us down the road to war.
Increasing defense spending to 2% of GDP over the next 5 years, calling it equivalent in size to NATO and "responding by combining all policy measures with the combined strength of the nation" would be a major shift in Japan's entire national policy. It will meet U.S. military, diplomatic, and economic demands, and will also promote research and development of security technology, i.e., military technology, and will make public infrastructure and administrative services, such as ports, airports, electric power, energy, water supply, communications, and finance, consistent with the development of defense capabilities under the Economic Security Law. Such a total mobilization of national power must be withdrawn.

(5) The construction of bases and reinforcement of troops in the Ryukyu Islands and the rapid conversion of the Ryukyu Islands into missile bases, including "cooperation" between the Japan Coast Guard and the Self-Defense Forces, are now in danger of becoming the focal point of war, and we urge that this be stopped immediately.

It is clear from the very beginning that this will result in a massive military buildup that will threaten neighboring countries, and will be a foolish policy of power and force that will negate diplomatic efforts based on the principle of international cooperation.

In addition, research and development of weapons is truly "violence of knowledge". We oppose the mobilization of scientists and engineers for this violence, and at the same time, we cannot allow a major arms policy that promotes weapons development to be a return to the "road taken someday". We oppose this expansion with all of our strength.

Thank you for your support.

Contact
Japan Council of Scientists, Committee for Peace Studies
Chasu Building 9F, 1-9-15 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0034, Japan
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
https://jsa.gr.jp/intl/