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from other regional coast guard posts in Japan. On the other hand, China
reorganized their maritime law enforcement organization in July 2013 and
they have been increasing their vessels rapidly by building new ones and
re-commissioning retired naval vessels. The number of Chinese maritime
law enforcement vessels is expected to keep increasing dramatically.
In response, Japan plans to establish a special coast guard unit for the
Senkaku Islands, which will be composed of twelve 1,000t-type patrol
vessels and deployed on Ishigaki-jima by 2015. The unique feature of the
unit will be the rotation of 13 crews on 10 ships to increase operational
efficiency.
Development of self-defense forces
In addition to the reinforcement of the Coast Guard, the Abe administration
has the strong intention of developing functional self-defensive capabilities
to improve its ability to maintain deterrent power against possible armed
provocations towards Japan. The Japanese government decided to abandon
the “Defense program outline 2011” for JSDF, which was a basic
framework for preparing self-defense capabilities for the middle term,
formulated by the former administration, and plans to prepare a new one
by the end of 2013.
According to an interim report on the new program outline, its three
key aims will be: establishing remote-islands defense capabilities, preparing
a seamless surveillance system, and strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance.
The Japanese Ministry of Defense unveiled a request for budget
allocations for the fiscal year 2014 at the end of August 2013. The total
required budget is about 48.9 billion USD (+2.9% y/y). It has been pointed
out that the budget request reflects the basic direction of the new program
outline mentioned above. To understand how pragmatic the program
outline is, let’s explore the details of the budget request.
First, the budget request emphasizes the importance of developing
defensive capabilities to protect remote islands, especially in southwestern
Japan. During the Cold War, Japan deployed its main SDF forces on
Hokkaido to deter and prevent possible invasion from the north by the
former Soviet Union, and put less importance on its southern territory.
Since the end of the Cold War, the SDF’s “putting weight on the north”
concept has still been in use. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is no
deployment of armed forces and the armory has only several policemen on
the Sakishima-Islands, close to the Senkaku Islands. Moreover, Japan is
the only state in Northeast Asia without any Marine force. To this end,
Japan plans to reorganize the Western Army infantry regiment of the