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Biden reportedly told Kishida he hoped Japan would increase defense spending

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Of course Biden, who does the bidding of the war industries in his nation, will make such a sales pitch to Japan, a loyal customer. But we shouldn't take this as Kishida bowing to US pressure. Kishida is also in favour of using any excuse possible to transfer public money to LDP friendly, home grown, weapons makers. As for the China threat, the real concern under late capitalism and the growing scarcity of resources, is that the first and third largest economies and their corporations no longer have trade hegemony. It's the freedom to exploit that these governments want to defend, now that a legitimate rival has emerged.

-3 ( +7 / -10 )

When you pay more, you usually receive more. What is Japan receiving for the extra cost?

2 ( +5 / -3 )

And increase the spending is exactly what Japan did!

Actually the defense budget is now double what it was which is incredible.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Indo-Pacific/Japan-doubling-defense-spending-a-good-idea-Armitage

2 ( +4 / -2 )

But greater defense roles of U.S. allies in Asia could trigger an arms race in the region, some pundits warn.

The pundits on the CCP's payroll who do not mention that it is China with it's massive military buildup, territorial expansion, and declared intent to make itself the regional hegemon that is causing this arms race in the first place.

2 ( +6 / -4 )

Establishment Dem, Biden, has always known on which side his bread is buttered and never showed any moral scruples about his being beholden to the US military-industrial complex. His sudden pull-out from Afghanistan was an anomaly in his long record of doing the bidding of Amerika's "Masters of War". Kishida ought to put the kibosh on Biden's bellicose advice, but going against "an offer he can't refuse" from HMV in Washington would be out of character for the constitution-hating LDP's current pointman.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Improve the JSDF pay and benefits package. Because i can tell you it ain't much which is why recruiting every year is such a struggle. JSDF military life is extremely pitiful compare to a US soldier.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Improve the JSDF pay and benefits package. Because i can tell you it ain't much which is why recruiting every year is such a struggle. JSDF military life is extremely pitiful compare to a US soldier.

Yeah but the JSDF isn’t a military!

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Improve the JSDF pay and benefits package. Because i can tell you it ain't much which is why recruiting every year is such a struggle. JSDF military life is extremely pitiful compare to a US soldier.

True, but that’s just one part of the package. The messaging is also a problem and how it is delivered and the lack of urgency or nationalistic pride is not taught unlike their South Korean counterparts. Teach them that, offer better incentives and reiterate the real and possible dire outcome of an increasing growing threat from China and where that can lead to and that thread should not to be underestimated in the slightest and have Kishida and his party push for less dependency on the US militarily and revisiting talks to overturning Article 9.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Kishida can’t.

They have to pay Abe his money first.

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

Possessing armed forces, let alone increasing the military budget twice as much as the current amount, is against the war-renouncing Japanese constitution. 

Currently, Japan’s defense expenditure-to-GDP ratio stands at 1.0 percent and Germany’s at 1.4 percent. A German scholar, Sven Saalar, assumes pressure by the U.S. is being applied on both Japan and Germany to increase their defense budgets more. (See “German scholar urges Kishida to carefully handle defense issues” ,  JT: Nov. 24  06:00 am JST)

If so, Kishida is only responding to the U.S.'s urging to do so, wagging its tail to a dominant master like his predecessors.

-7 ( +4 / -11 )

OssanAmericaToday  08:32 am JST

The pundits on the CCP's payroll who do not mention...

Presumably you can say exactly who these pundits are and how you know they're connected to the CCP. Otherwise that just looks like a paranoid rant.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Possessing armed forces, let alone increasing the military budget twice as much as the current amount, is against the war-renouncing Japanese constitution.

Japan's defense budget is not limited by the constitution. There is no law stating it can go over 1%.

Japan's "armed forces" are 100% within the law, regarding the constitution, they are a self-defense force, any intelligent person already knows this.

Japan has gone over the 1% self-imposed, limit, numerous times over the years, with little to no fan-fare or any problems from the people!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Yubaru: He's not wrong, actually (granted increasing the military budget is not illegal, but I think that was more of an aside, like -- forget about doubling the military budget -- know what I mean? Japan cannot, actually, legally have a military. Hence, they called it the self-DEFENCE forces, to get around that issue. Abe always felt ashamed of calling it that instead of what it is, and so is insisting on changing article nine so they can stop calling it a defensive force.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

but I think that was more of an aside, like -- forget about doubling the military budget -- know what I mean?

Through experience in replying to "his" posts, there is no aside when he makes a statement. He knows fully well what he is writing,

Changing the constitution is one thing. But until then, it's still a SDF.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Yubaru,

Whether JSDF is a full-fledged military or not is a moot question. Some people say Japan has no armed forces, but only "self-defense forces". There are many constitutional specialists, though, who contend that they are full-fledged armed forces whereby their very existence is in sheer violation of the constitution..

You cannot say Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, Naval Self-Defense Force and Air Self-Defense Force are armed forces because they are not called Army, Navy and Air Force. You could call yourself by whatever name you like to be called. Thus, the Pentagon calls themselves "Department of Defense" rather than "Department of Offense or War".

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Japan shot build a Nuke then its tranquility forever no joe xi pu jong wont bother to trouble Japan any more just one nuke no military expenditure needed

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Whether JSDF is a full-fledged military or not is a moot question.

This coming from the person who has on numerous times stated that they do not understand what the word "moot" means.

Your comments are just garbage, as the JSDF is just that, a self defense force, nothing more, nothing less, and it adheres to the constitution of Japan as well.

Making a comparison to the US is childish and ignorant. This is Japan, not the US.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I’m sure Biden did. A basic role of U.S. presidents is to ask allies to spend more on defense. This fulfills two agendas for Biden:

One, a portion of increased spending would go toward arms manufactured in the U.S. It’s a boon for the defense industry.

Two, the U.S. pays heavily to maintain the Pax Americana, in which major nations have not gone to war with each other in nearly 80 years because American military might and presence is so great globally. Since the 1990s, the Democrat mode of spending has been to cut military spending to fund domestic spending. Every extra yen Japan dishes out to help maintain balance in Asia is a penny that Biden can repurpose for social spending in his budget games.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Listen, the Big Brother has spoken.

US is speaking its mind again, this time louder and clearer.

Would Japan not take serious note..?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Yubaru,

smithinjapan was right when he said, "Japan cannot, actually, legally have a military. Hence, they called it the self-DEFENCE forces, to get around that issue. Abe always felt ashamed of calling it that instead of what it is, and so is insisting on changing article nine so they can stop calling it a defensive force."

Do you call his comment garbage, too, just as you did so about my comment?

Note Douglas McArthur flipflopped his occupation policy 180 degrees and forced Japan, albeit already a pacifist nation trying hard to cast off its jingoistic, militaristic past, to rearm itself. I think the U.S. government has been in this line of policy vis-a-vis Japan.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

In my long life I cannot remember a US President who hasn't asked Japan to increase their defense spending. It's almost a ritual. During my own time in the Navy out in Westpac and the IO all I ever heard was that Japan didn't want to defend itself and didn't spend enough on defense. It was especially galling when Japan back then was the worlds second largest economy by a considerable margin yet spent less than many nations with much smaller GDPs. This is really old news, just new faces. Hardly headline material.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

One, a portion of increased spending would go toward arms manufactured in the U.S. It’s a boon for the defense industry.

Very little. If you are cognizant of how Japan arms itself the great majority of its armaments are built in Japan. If you look at what is actually on their ships or in their GSDF you find a lot of license built European equipment and Japanese in-house designs. Even most of their combat jets such as their F-2 and F-15Js are built in Japan. Same for their helicopters, their big P-1 ASW patrol plane ( quite an aircraft too, not based on a civil design like the US P-8 or the P-3 before it but a clean sheet Japanese design ) and the C-2 transport, another clean sheet Japanese design. The Japanese design and build a lot of their own radars and sonars (not Aegis but pretty much everything else they operate), Japan unique anti-ship missiles and air to air missiles. They don't buy all that much from abroad, less than I think you imagine.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What Biden probably meant was Japan should increase their defense spending in mainland Nippon itself so that the giant military bases suffocating the da-kine Ryukyuan people would be needed no more.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his hope that Japan would increase its defense spending during a phone call with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in October, a diplomatic source said, as the two allies deepen their ties amid China's rise.

This is a smart approach to continue with Trump's plan.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Desert Tortois,

In my long life I cannot remember a US President who hasn't asked Japan to increase their defense spending. It's almost a ritual (Nov. 30  11:55 pm JST)

Post-war Japanese leaders from Yoshida Shigeru on thought it would be better for Japan to concentrate on the reconstruction of the war-devastated economy rather than spending money on military. There are so many U.S. bases and troops planted and stationed in Japan. So why be bothered with having its own military and spending money on it? they thought. The U.S. let it be because it was conducive to its occupation policy.

As the Cold War intensified, though, the U.S.'s policy toward Japan flip-flopped 180 degrees. It decided to make Japan rearm to the teeth to reduce the cost to defend the sphere of its influence in this Pacific region while maintaining its large military presence in Japan intact. If needs be, Japan could fight global wars along with the U.S.

In other words, the U.S. has been urging Japan to increase its military spending just for its sake.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

This is a smart approach to continue with Trump's plan.

Don't you mean Mr. Obama's "Pivot to the Pacific" when Mr. Biden was his VP? The hardware you see coming on line now mostly started to be developed in the early 2010s during Mr. Obama's second term to meet the anticipated threat from China.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

As the Cold War intensified, though, the U.S.'s policy toward Japan flip-flopped 180 degrees. It decided to make Japan rearm to the teeth to reduce the cost to defend the sphere of its influence in this Pacific region while maintaining its large military presence in Japan intact. If needs be, Japan could fight global wars along with the U.S.

Were you alive for the Cold War? As the Cold War intensified the Soviet military and especially their nuclear arsenal grew. Do you remember how big and threatening the Soviet military was? They had over 1000 nuclear subs, fleets of bombers, thousands of tanks and a vast army. The west, not just the US but every elected representative government, was under the gun and needed all the firepower they collectively could muster to deter the Soviets from another move like the invasion of South Korea. If Japan could adequately defend itself and the seas surrounding it that freed US forces to fight in other areas. Team effort. Japanese forces never had the mobility to deploy away from Japan. They were tied to their home bases so it was never a matter of the Japanese engaging in a foreign war with the US somewhere. Japan didn't have the ability to deploy, but they could certainly defend their land and the seas around them.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Desert Tortoise,

Do you remember how big and threatening the Soviet military was? They had over 1000 nuclear subs, fleets of bombers, thousands of tanks and a vast army.

If the Soviets had had over 1,000 nuclear subs, fleets of bombers, thousands of tanks and a vast army during the Cold War era, they must have entertained great fear against the U.S., no doubt. Even today, Soviet-turned Russia cannot shed off that fear easily whereby they still retain 1,625 nuclear warheads (cf. the U.S. possession: 1,800).     

Nations should make efforts to eradicate mutual mistrust and hence fear against each other. Instead of making such efforts, they build up weaponry, intimidating antagonists and eventually being bogged down by an endless arms race.

The Soviet Union is said to have collapsed due to a bloated military budget it couldn't afford any more.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Nations should make efforts to eradicate mutual mistrust and hence fear against each other. Instead of making such efforts, they build up weaponry, intimidating antagonists and eventually being bogged down by an endless arms race.

Tell it to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. China until recently was viewed more favorably in Asia than Japan. China was well liked. Not now. Is that somehow America's fault? Did the US take Philippine islands? Did the US oppress Hong Kong? Is the US committing genocide of the Uyghurs? Did the US invade Georgia and Ukraine? Did the US annex the Crimea? No to all of those. The US was attacked on 9-11 and fought two wars in the Middle East to prevent another such day. But the US walked away from both Afghanistan and Iraq. It didn't keep their territory. It has no interest in expanding that way. Not so Russia and China. You are naively trusting of predators. China and Russia are malevolent. They do not mean well for their neighbors. They are not forces for good in this world.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And I should have said the old USSR had over 100 nuclear subs, not 1000. Still a lot of nuclear subs by any standard. No navy has that many today. The US never had that many either.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Japan has received top notch security for over 70 years and has been able to thrive because of it.

Time to pay up.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Desert Tortoise,

What you mention about Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping may be true. And it's true, too, that you hate them viscerally for the reasons you list.

But can you say for certainty that your hatred toward them has never come from misunderstanding and misgivings on your part? Or based on egoism on your part? As for the Uighur issue in China, I always wonder why the U.S. public opinion is heated like hell while Islamic nations are lenient and reticent.

What I'm proposing is that nations must make efforts to eradicate misunderstanding and misgivings about each other, for starters, before saber rattling. Care should always be taken not to be duped by official propaganda machines.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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