Foreign Affairs

TexasTowelie

(112,251 posts) Wed Jul 3, 2019, 05:27 AM Jul 2019

Warship shows Japan's determination to expand military role

ABOARD THE JS IZUMO (AP) — One of Japan's largest warships, the helicopter carrier Izumo, is returning home from Subic port in the Philippines following a powerful show of Tokyo's determination to expand its military presence and counter China's forays into strategic waters.

Subic, a former U.S. naval base, was the Izumo's final stop in a two-month deployment in the Indo-Pacific region at a time of prolonged tensions over maritime territory. The carrier, along with the destroyers Murasame and Akebono, just finished a series of drills with the United States and other countries.

Island nation Japan's ability to project military power beyond its borders is severely constrained by the commitment to pacifism and rejection of use of military force in conflict enshrined in its post-World War II constitution, though in 2015 it was reinterpreted to allow the use of force in defending itself and its allies.

But the Izumo's mission offers a glimpse of where its military is headed: For the first time, troops from a newly formed amphibious brigade of the Ground Self Defense Force participated in an extended naval deployment.

Read more: https://www.joplinglobe.com/region/warship-shows-japan-s-determination-to-expand-military-role/article_116ec104-4dc9-5531-b61a-9897d980e87a.html

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Warship shows Japan's determination to expand military role (Original Post) TexasTowelie Jul 2019 OP

The arms race in East Asia is very ominous soryang Jul 2019 #1

soryang

(3,299 posts)

1. The arms race in East Asia is very ominous

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Thu Jul 4, 2019, 02:47 PM

Jul 2019

While this Japanese task force was operating in the region, a similar Chinese naval task force was operating in the vicinity of Guam. Additionally, the Chinese just launched at least one "anti-carrier" ballistic missile in the South China Sea in the last few days. By 2030 the Chinese may finish their production run of advanced fleet ballistic missile submarines. Although it would only take one of these submarines to completely destroy Japan or multiple major cities in the US, there are military and political leaders in the US who believe they can somehow keep this threat from eventuating by keeping them out of the Pacific and confined inside the island cordon separating the China Seas from the western Pacific.

So the arms race is reaching a point where the advocates of containing China will feel as Germany did in the thirties, "it's now or never." I've heard otherwise credible analysts saying that the economic challenge alone to US dominance justifies this military confrontation in the region.

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