IMPACT: NMD WILL RESCUE THE ESSENTIAL USA-JAPAN ALLIANCE

JAPAN-USA TMD CEMENTS THE JAPAN-USA ALLIANCE FOR GOOD

The Straits Times (Singapore), November 7, 1999 SECTION: (Review Cover Story); Pg. 36 HEADLINE: Next stage in US-Japan military relations // ln-acs-11-11-99

One reason that Japanese officials are enthusiastic about TMD is that they see it as a means of cementing the US-Japan alliance.

"Nobody can compete against the US-Japan alliance if it remains strong," said Professor Seizaburo Sato, a doyen among foreign policy scholars.

Emphasising the centrality of the alliance to Japan's security, he added that its primary purpose was to prepare against China.

TMD will strengthen the alliance by requiring close cooperation between the two countries, with the military industrial complexes of both nations profiting from the investment.

And when it is installed, TMD may well necessitate the establishment of joint US-Japan command structures, Japanese officials told Sunday Review, thus converting the present consultative arrangements in the alliance into formal structures resembling Nato's.

TMD JOINT COMMANDS WILL PRESERVE THE USA-JAPAN ALLIANCE

The Straits Times (Singapore), November 7, 1999 SECTION: (Review Cover Story); Pg. 36 HEADLINE: Next stage in US-Japan military relations // ln-acs-11-11-99

Dr Yoichi Funabashi, the chief diplomatic correspondent of the Asahi Shimbun, for one predicted that joint-command structures will be established, for the simple reason that Japan will desire to share in the decision-making process after having invested so much in building TMD.

"It is inevitable this happens if you want to preserve the alliance," he told Sunday Review. "Joint command structures are the only way for the junior partner in the alliance to have a say in decisions."

TMD FOR JAPAN WILL HELP PROPEL CHINA INTO ACCOMODATION WITH ITS NEIGHBORS

The Straits Times (Singapore), November 7, 1999 SECTION: (Review Cover Story); Pg. 36 HEADLINE: Next stage in US-Japan military relations // ln-acs-11-11-99

An academic at Japan's National Defence Academy thought that TMD can give Japan an effective leverage against China.

"China cannot pressure Japan with its military capability," he said. "In the short run, TMD may be destabilising, but in the long run, it will be stabilising," he predicted. "It all depends on perception."

If China thinks TMD is going to get better and better, then TMD will be stabilising. Presumably, this calculation is based on the premise that China will be forced to conclude, in due course, that it cannot compete against the technological might of Japan and the US, and will decide to be accommodating.