With an election looming, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has good reason to moderate his stance on divisive national security proposals. But defence is still very much the big picture, says political scientist Yasuo Takao.
Japan ese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Plus Three Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Oct 10, 2024. PERTH: Just days after taking office, Japan ’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba already appears to be on the defensive., there was no explicit mention of the"Asian version of NATO" he had advocated nor some of the more divisive proposals he made in the lead-up to the Liberal Democratic Party 's presidential election.
Already, some LDP senior members have expressed their opposition to the idea. The LDP has also approved its campaign platform for the upcoming election, which omits mention of the creation of an Asian NATO. He advocates for revising the “asymmetry” in the US-Japan Security Treaty to make the alliance more balanced and for Japan to participate in the decision-making process regarding the use of US nuclear weapons through “nuclear sharing”.
Nuclear sharing is another thorny issue which has raised concerns about the collapse of Japan's"Three Non-Nuclear Principles": Not possessing nuclear weapons, not producing nuclear weapons, and not permitting the introduction of nuclear weapons into the country. It was initially proposed by former prime minister Shinzo Abe and supported by conservative lawmakers like Mr Ishiba’s main LDP challenger Sanae Takaichi whom he pipped to the post. Mr Kishida, who hails from Hiroshima, was against the idea.
Nonetheless, the lineup of ministers and senior officials in the Ishiba administration paints a longer-term picture, notably in the number of individuals with experience as defence ministers: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, Chairman of the Policy Research Council Itsunori Onodera, and Mr Ishiba himself have all previously held the position.
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