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And Just In Case Abenomics Fails...
Whether the Japanese government guessed that the 150% annualized surge in the nominal price of their stocks, or 30% devaluation was unsustainable is questionable, but it seems that 'Plan B' is being created. As The Diplomat notes, finding itself in an increasingly complex and hostile security environment, Japan has taken the first steps towards developing a pre-emptive first-strike capability. This is a controversial move in a region that remains wary of a potential return to Japanese militarism.
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The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is compiling a new set of defense guidelines that would allow Japan’s armed forces, for the first time, to develop offensive capability, and to strike first if an attack appears imminent.
Under Japan’s strictly pacifist constitution, the Self Defense Force is restricted to weaponry and tactics that are deemed defensive in nature. That means no bombers, no cruise or ballistic missiles, no armed drones - and no shooting until shot at.
That could change under the new National Defense Program Guidelines, which are expected to be finished by year’s end.
"What they are basically saying is, ‘When a potential enemy has started attacking us, then we would start offensive operations to take out their missiles, as well as their missile bases,’"
Via J. Michael Cole of The Diplomat,
Finding itself in an increasingly complex and hostile security environment, Japan has taken the first steps towards developing a pre-emptive first-strike capability. This is a controversial move in a region that remains wary of a potential return to Japanese militarism.
Just a few years ago, the idea that the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) would be given the ability to conduct operations that go beyond “self defense” would have sounded ludicrous, not to mention that offensive capabilities would have contravened a longstanding interpretation of Japan’s pacifist constitution.
But North Korea’s continuing belligerence and pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, as well as China’s growing assertiveness and sovereignty claims, both appear to be changing Tokyo’s calculations. Another factor that is now making such ruminations possible is the U.S. “pivot” to Asia, which – though more in the concept stage than an actual policy – has manifested itself more tangibly through Washington’s willingness to reassess the role of JSDF in regional security. The budgetary constraints with which the U.S. military must now conjugate have made burden-sharing all but inevitable. One outcome is Washington is accepting a more muscular defense posture for Japan.
Just a few months ago in the wake of North Korea’s third nuclear test, Japan’s defense chief, Itsunori Onodera, said in an interview with Reuters that his country had “the right to develop the ability to make a pre-emptive strike against an imminent attack”, though he added that it had no plans to do so for the time being. Debate on such matters is not new, and usually occurs following a missile or nuclear test by the DPRK. But under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the government has shown itself much more willing to stretch interpretations of the constitution, if not to revise it altogether.
Less than three months after Onodera’s interview, reports emerged that Tokyo was working on a new defense policy framework that, at its core, made provisions for the development of a first-strike capability. Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) legislator and head of the LDP’s National Defense Division, Yasuhide Nakayama, made the recommendations and said that Pyongyang’s nuclear program and the Chinese intrusions in the disputed East China Sea waters had created an atmosphere where people in Japan felt “extreme anxiety about national security.”
LDP officials maintain that pre-emptive strikes would only be carried out when an imminent attack on Japan from a specific site was confirmed. However this policy raises questions about the legality of pre-emptive action and the reliability of intelligence used to assess various scenarios (for example, pre-emption raises the risks and costs of miscalculation). Any move in that direction — which the National Defense Program Guideline, set to be released by the end of 2013, will make clearer — will require Tokyo to reassure its nervous neighbors about a military revival, or “resurgent chauvinist sentiment,” in Japan. Another important question to ask is whether a policy of pre-emption would extend to Japan’s security allies as well.
There is little information on the type of capability the JSDF would seek to carry out such operations, though a ballistic and/or cruise missile component, perhaps something akin to Taiwan’s Hsiung Feng IIE land-attack cruise missile, is not unfeasible. Former Japanese defense minister and the second highest-ranking member in Abe’s LDP, Shigeru Ishiba – along with a growing number of Japanese politicians – seem to favor the development of long-range cruise missile technology.
The new defense policy framework seems to focus primarily on North Korea and the threat that its missiles pose to Japan, South Korea and U.S. bases in the region. However, China also likely figures in their plans — including scenarios involving DF-15 and/or DF-16 ballistic missile attacks against U.S. bases in Okinawa. The risks involved in pre-emptive strikes in Chinese territory are much greater, however, especially considering China’s increasingly formidable air defense systems.
Unless there is a dramatic shift in Tokyo or in Japan’s security environment, the current context seems highly conducive to the emergence of a more assertive JSDF. A pre-emptive capability is one component, and a highly controversial one at that. Whether it would increase or undermine Japan’s security remains to be seen, and will in part be contingent on how Tokyo handles the political repercussions of such a move.
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Time to start a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."
Nah, everyone seems to think this will be a repeat of the past leading to the path of conquest. The first strike most likely will be aimed and the bond vigilantes.
Its heartwarming the way our Central Bankers learn from eachother.
Abenomics explained:
1. Flood market with JPY to weaken JPY and target 2% inflation
2.Oops, Bond holders think that 0.25% yield is not that attractive with 2% inflation. Bonds sell off and yields rise rapidly, putting pressure on Japan's ability to pay interest on the existing debt.
3.Divert the newly printed JPY to buy Bonds, thus Bonds rally, yields come down and JPY strengthens back below 100.
4. Go back to #1 (Above) but this time with more debt and a larger CB Balance sheet.
Wow, what a surprise this all is. Yawn.........................
The bond vigilantes (the Money Power, if you will), hijacked Japan's government a long time ago. They are the bond vigilantes.
The game is for the dElites to bankrupt the world's chumptocracies and effect authoritarian rule over those they don't chose to kill off with their militarized police forces and bio-weapons.
Long flame-thowers.
You mean Godzilla and Mothra are players in this too?
Geez....
Today's Dilbert, starring an un-named bearded nobel prize winning economist. Heh.
http://www.dilbert.com/strips/
Japans entry into WWII was an economic decision,
They are well and truly fucked.
No energy.
No raw materials.
No money for the pretty, pretty things.
0--------> TORA! TORA! TORA!
-If you fail, try again.
Japanese proverb?
Beg to Differ with your third point. Roppongi has plenty of Russian hookers that are quite decorative....
Yes, they were practically forced to engage the US because the US blocked them from importing raw materials.
Which has nothing to do with this topic.
If they want an offensive capability ,they will have it in weeks. I'm sure it's all on the computers, just waiting to be constructed.
Send out the Gundam(s)!
Nationalistic Ninjas have been replaced with effeminate emos last I heard. Unless they can find a way to control an F-16 with Dance Dance Revolution, I don't see them starting any wars.
Let the power start going out for say 8-10 hours a day because Japan can't afford fuel prices and watch how fast those Emo kids turn.
Nintendo= opiate of the masses
that and a side of jpop
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=jcIOg_m-bp4
What do japanese gamers play? If they play enough murder simulators (first person shooters), they are probably better trained and in better psychological condition for war than the WW2 generation.
Re: "What do japanese gamers play? If they play enough murder simulators (first person shooters), they are probably better trained and in better psychological condition for war than the WW2 generation."
... until they realize that the dead bodies don't just disappear after a minute or two ... and you don't have a second life or an instant medical kit ... and that injuries hurt ... and there are different types of injuries, not just "dead" and "alive" ... or has it been too long since I last played a FPS?
... and they'll get most distressed when they find they have limited ammo and can't reload just by shooting off the screen ...
Is there a stock option for Banzai suicide bombers?
War on drugs winning :
4 women cartel members beheaded in Mexico...
http://www.elblogdelnarco.com/2013/06/video-fuerte-en-donde-los-zetas.html
Bye Bye Abe.
Unfortunately... opinion polls (from June 2) show that Abe is likely to gain seats in the house of councillors on July 11... unless Japan's markets really are wiped out before then.
The answer to your question is Mitsubishi. They make pretty much all the Japanese bangbang stuff. They also run the ostensibly peaceful 'space program". . .
Long Mitsubishi - and long live the zaibatsu?
+ bazirrions for zaibatsu
The Japanese are not to be trifled with. Hell all they would have to do is chunk canisters of nuke waste at their enemies. They have like a million tons of it.
They will print and print and print....... then they will take us to war.
~ Marc Faber 2009
Didn't I hear something about the Japanese going to devalue their currency earlier in the year?
When are they supposed to do that?
I bought my first silver with BitCoin today. Now let's see if the ship comes in. Actually they won't need a very big ship. Just a test this time.
So in an increasingly unstable world security environment and several belligerant neighbors, Japan wants... a normal military like every other country in the world has? Sounds quite prudent to me.
Only the dumbest or most deluded will pick up arms to fight against other countries. Darwin awards for every flag draped coffin!
what japan recognizes is quite simple.....the erosion of u.s. influence in chinas backyard............and by the time the collapsed u.s. empire completely pulls out of asia by 2020, japan hopes they will have some independent means of protecting themselves............
and we can only hope the same goes for that parasitic country in the middle east
Currency wars...meet shooting wars.
WTF is this article about?
It's incredible that Japan as a sovereign nation does not have the ability to defend itself the way other countries do.
The only ones that benefit for the current arrangement are US kleptocrats (the government and the military-industrial-financial complex).
Define defend itself the way other countries do.
They do have substantial defensive capabilities. Offensive to take them off the island is lacking... until that is they get rid of that pesky article in their post-ww2 Constitution.
If what was protecting me from PRC and DPRK was Obama's willingness to back me up, I'd be building missiles as fast as I could.
They'll be the nation to build the T-1000. They're world-class with robots, and can just deviate from perfecting the Sex-bot for a few years.
Didn't they say there is no plan b?
Oohhh wait... that was some guy in the ECB.
do NOT flip the switch in japan.
if the video games stop, the war starts.
japan was home to the first online game community murder.
one man killed another over the theft of.....a virtual knife.
an unique and rare item in a video GAME.
the friend sold it for roughly $500 at an online auction and the original "owner" plunged a very REAL knife into the "thief's" chest.
offhand i think this is what sparked the debate over virtual property rights in japan.
go find some hardcore gamers. the addiction is worse than heroine. cut off their access and watch the sparks fly. 140 lb people will scream, shout, cry, and threaten, just before they attack you.
think im fucking joking? i found myself slumped against a wall, pawing at a locked door which was suddenly and intentionally blocking my access to internet. i had just spent $200 on phone cables to reach the outlet i wasn't suppose to have access to(pre-wifi). i had spent the last 3 years trying to tailor my life to shut out all forms of responsibility, family, and friends because all those things are competitors for my game time. it hurts when it all comes crashing down at once and you realize its just a fucking waste of time.
i still play. real games though. much more fun. Game of Thrones :)
An invasion force of Japanese Emos with pink Hello Kitty backpacks is actually kind of frightening.