Japanese government
sources said Friday that the country’s Defense Ministry plans to deploy a
500-man Ground Self-Defense Force unit to the Okinawa Prefecture island of
Miyako to boost its defense of southwestern Japan regions.
The report by Jiji Press follows the unveiling of new U.S.-Japan defense
cooperation guidelines and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s state visit to
Washington earlier this week. Miyako Island is part of the Ryukyu Islands chain
whose southernmost “Sakishima” portion includes the Diaoyu/Senkaku
islands contested by China and Japan. The new U.S.-Japan military rules
stipulate that Washington’s commitment to Japan’s overall security
includes the islands.
Jiji says the ministry hopes the funds necessary for the deployment,
including land-acquisition costs, will be part of its budget appropriation for
the next fiscal year, which starts in April 2016.
Japanese defense planners are also said to be mulling
the deployment of another ground unit to the island of Ishigaki, also in
Okinawa Prefecture, and plans to carry out on-site surveys there shortly, Jiji
quoted the sources as saying. The Senkakus are about 170 km north of Ishigaki
Island. Japan considers the tiny group of uninhabited islets to be under the
administration of Ishigaki City on Ishigaki.
Minister of Defense Akira Sato expects to visit the two islands in
mid-May in order to seek local support for dispatching the unit to Miyako and
on-site surveys on Ishigaki, the sources said.
Reuters, quoting U.S. and Japanese
sources, reported on April 29 that Japan’s
military is considering joint maritime air patrols with the U.S. in the South
China Sea in response to China’s increasingly assertive pursuit of
territorial claims in the area. Author: Doug Tsuruoka
for the Asia Times
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