'First Glimpse' at Shared Strategic Agenda
HONOLULU (Feb. 23) -- Talks between U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign affairs officials over the weekend foreshadowed a major security declaration expected later this year between the two allies, an East-West Center specialist said. Sheila Smith called their joint security statement the biggest development since 1996 when a post-Cold War redefinition of the alliance was concluded between President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
Smith, an East-West Center research fellow who specializes in U.S.-Japan security issues, said the meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with Japan Foreign Affairs Minister Nobutaka Machimura and Minister of State for Defense Yoshinori Ohno was substantively more significant than other of the so-called "2 + 2" meetings held regularly between the countries.
"This one is important because it reveals the extent to which the two governments have forged a common strategic agenda for the U.S.-Japan alliance," Smith said. "While in the past, Tokyo and Washington have agreed on common interests, they have always stopped short of endorsing a common strategic purpose that would motivate alliance cooperation."
This new approach to the U.S.-Japan alliance dialogue reflects significant change in Japanese defense and security planning over the past several years. The dispatch of Self-Defense Forces first to Afghanistan to assist in the "war on terror," and then to Iraq to facilitate humanitarian assistance and reconstruction, was a watershed in postwar Japanese policymaking regarding the use of the military. But more broadly, Japan's security planners have reassessed their needs in the post-9/11 world, Smith said. North Korea and China both top Tokyo's concerns about the future stability of Northeast Asia.
This was clearly reflected in the National Defense Program Outline adopted in December 2004, only the third long-term strategic vision crafted since the 1950s. In contrast to the 1976 and 1995 versions, this recent security strategy clearly situates Japan in a dangerous neighborhood, Smith said, and puts for the first time counterterrorism, non-proliferation and the security of Japan's offshore islands as priority missions for the country.
Alliance goals reflect Japan's new security thinking. Smith called Saturday's joint security communique our "first glimpse at what the U.S. and Japan will craft as their shared strategic agenda" for the coming decade. Already the communique attracted Chinese criticism for including a reference to Taiwan.
Just as important will be the resolution of bilateral talks on the relocation of U.S. military forces stationed in Japan. The key concept offered up last weekend is that the U.S. military and Japan's Self-Defense Forces will share the use of facilities currently under American control. The extent of U.S. force reductions in Okinawa remains to be agreed upon, but it is likely that some units of U.S. Marines in Okinawa will be relocated possibly to Hokkaido, while the U.S. Air Force will begin to consider joint use of major air bases such as Yokota Air Base and Kadena Air Base with Japan's Air Self-Defense Force units.
Later this year, the outcome of this relocation effort will be announced, and it will reflect the missions outlined in the common strategic agenda announced last weekend, Smith said.
Sheila Smith can be contacted at (808) 944-7427 or smiths@eastwestcenter.org.
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