Defense Minister Talks Deepen Cooperation on Missile Technology

Japan and the U.S. are deepening their cooperation on defense and strengthening their alliance. We welcome these trends.

Defense Minister Takeaki Matsumoto met in Singapore with U.S. counterpart Robert Gates and formally explained Japan’s criteria for the U.S.’s transfer and export to other countries of their jointly-developed next-generation interceptor missiles.

For all intents and purposes, the missiles will be transferred only to American allies. The U.S. and the countries receiving the missiles will take “strict export management measures” to prevent transferring the missiles to a third country. Japan has decided to approve the transfer and sale of the missiles to other countries if these conditions are upheld. This has been a pending issue ever since Japan and the U.S. began jointly developing a missile defense (MD) system in 2006. Japan and the U.S. intend to enter the joint production stage around 2014 and begin deployment in 2018, by which time the matter needs to be settled.

In order to counter the threat posed by ballistic missiles, Japan and the U.S. must cooperate closely not only on applying MD units and sharing information but also on sharing technology. Their joint development of a next-generation interceptor missile can be taken as a symbol of such cooperation.

Until now, Japan has lagged behind in international cooperation on defense technology due to the restrictions imposed by the Three-Point Ban on Exporting Weapons. In the case of this Japan-U.S. joint development, which is being treated as an exception to the ban, Japan’s technological capabilities are drawing high praise. We want to expand this sort of cooperation.

When Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government settled on its National Defense Program Outline at the end of last year, it shelved its plan to relax the arms export ban out of consideration for the Social Democratic Party. Kan then considered looking for a country other than the U.S. to participate in international joint development. Considering that Japan’s defense industry must maintain its technological base, we should start taking steps toward relaxing the arms export ban.

At their meeting, Matsumoto and Gates also discussed the issue of securing an alternative site for U.S. carrier-based aircraft takeoff and landing training, which is currently held at Iwo Jima. Securing a new training site is a condition for the transfer of carrier-based aircraft from U.S. Naval Air Facility Atsugi to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. The Defense Ministry has chosen Mage Island, located west of Tanega Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, as a candidate for relocation and has begun coordinating with local authorities. This deserves high praise as an important step in advancing the transfer of carrier-based aircraft to Iwakuni, which is a pillar of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan.

Coordinating with the local government is always a thorny issue in searching for a new training site for U.S. forces. The search for an alternative site to Iwo Jima has been rough and is behind schedule, but it needs to be completed as soon as possible.

Starting with the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Kan’s government has conspicuously dragged its feet on the realignment of U.S. forces. However, Japan and the U.S. must steadily reach agreement on various issues one by one to improve the credibility of their alliance.