The Senkaku Islands and Japan
171Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) into a Marine force based
on the U.S. Marine Corps. It will also purchase several AVV7 amphibious
personnel carriers from the United States to research equipment and
operations for the Marine force. Japan also will start research on MV-22
Osprey tiltrotor aircraft for transporting marines. Also, three JMSDF
Oosumi class dock landing ships will be modified for operations with
AVV7 and MV-22.
Second, preparing a seamless surveillance system is also significant for
remote islands’ defense. When Y-12 aircraft from Chinese maritime
surveillance flew at an altitude of around 60m, violating the Japanese
territorial airspace of the Senkaku Islands on December 13, 2012, the air-
defense radar mounted on the Miyako-jima Island in the Sakishima Islands
could not detect the Chinese aircraft due to its distance and the blind angle
of detection behind the horizon. It was a great shock for the SDF.
The enforcement of an effective early warning system was placed at the
top of the agenda of Japanese defense authorities. The Abe administration
plans to relocate half of the twelve E-2C airborne early warning (AEW)
aircraft from the northern Misawa base in Aomori to Okinawa, in order to
sustain continuous surveillance around the Senkaku Islands. Japan also
started to conduct research on the future introduction of three or four RQ-4
“Global Hawks” from the United States by 2015.
Consolidation of institutions
To enhance the crisis management capability of the Japanese government,
the Abe administration plans to establish a Japanese “National Security
Council (NSC)” inspired by the NSC of the USA by the end of this year.
The current Security Council of Japan (SC), which consists of 9 ministers
and has no secretariat of its own, is criticized for slowness of decision-
making and lack of experts. The new NSC will consist of the Prime
Minister, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the Foreign Minister and the
Defense Minister and it will fall within the Cabinet Secretariat. It is
expected that the NSC will analyze information gathered by several
organizations and support the Prime Minister’s decision-making. To
control handling of confidential information by public servants, especially
government employees who will be engaged in the NSC, the government
also intends to submit a bill of security protection, which includes 10 years
of imprisonment as a punitive measure.