Japan Ready to Declare: We’ll Go First

Time ^ | July 09, 2013 | Kirk Spitzer

[JerseyanExile]

Japan Maritime Self Defense Force sailors during a recent ceremony at sea.

Japan has no intention to go it alone in defending its territory or national interests from growing threats in the Asia-Pacific region. But an annual defense review released Tuesday and other recent developments signal an increasing willingness on the part of Japan to go it alone, first.

Japan plans to establish a new National Security Council that would streamline how and when Tokyo would use military force, appoint a senior officer to command troops from all three armed services, and formally designate a Marine Corps-like force to defend its vulnerable southwest islands.

The United States remains Japan’s essential security partner, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to strengthen the U.S.-Japan defense alliance. But the new plans would allow Japan to respond to threats against its own territory without turning first to its long-time protector.

The annual Defense White Paper issued by the Ministry of Defense concludes that Japan faces “increasingly tangible, acute and serious” threats from its neighbors – meaning, China mostly — and must improve its ability to respond militarily, should that be necessary.

“The reality of the current international community suggests that it is not necessarily possible to prevent invasions from the outside by only nonmilitary means such as diplomatic efforts, and in the event that the nation were to be invaded it would not be able to remove such a threat…. For this reason, Japan is striving to develop proper defense capabilities to protect the lives and assets of the public and to defend the territorial land, sea and airspace of Japan,” the report says.

[August West]

Sorry, I have to call your bluff. You really do not know what you are talking about. Child prostitution is illegal, hardly encouraged, and I believe rarer than in the U.S. Love hotels and cafes do NOT hold the John’s money; in any case, Prostitution is illegal. I am not sure exactly what a U-15 shop is, but what you describe are not “all over over Tokyo”. (I have seem phallic-shaped candy at a fertility festival.) Until recently, pornography was censored - even now, it is tamer than what one would find in the U.S. Age of consent is 16-18 I believe. Of course sodomy is not classified as sex - it’s bizarre to even think that it could be.
Who would want kids here? I would, and I do. I have two children here: it is a much more wholesome environment than most places in the U.S. In my son’s school, there are no homo teachers and in his class only one student does not have a mother and a father. The concept of same-sex parenting simply does not exist.

[Owl558]

“I suppose my inability to embrace the Japs comes from the neighbors...”

My uncle served in the New Mexico Guard unit taken prisoner on Bataan. He marched, saw his friends bayonetted for falling out, was tortured, beaten and held in the most deprived conditions. Somehow he survived, but was a mess for the rest of his life.

Even HE managed to forgive the Japanese eventually. He came to understand that carrying around so much hate is not healthy. In your case, you’re carrying around someone else’s hate like it is your own.

[Sola Veritas]

“Little to no stigma attacher any more.”

Goodness...after the horrors you describe. I am surprised that Japan is not the main travel stop for paedophiles from the US.

Anime always struck me as a little too “sexual.” And that is the toned down stuff we get here in the USA. You are correct when you say “sad.”

[sushiman]

It may be underground but it is not illegal .