U.S. experts urge Japan to get strike capability over N Korean threat

All I got from reading this is...soon Japan will be purchasing new weapons from America．

As long as we are not talking abut "first strike" capability then I am all for it.

Just how in the world are you going to differentiate between the two? It's all a matter of who pushes the button first.

Looks like Trump left the catalog on Abe's coffee table before he left...

Its hard not to be a cynic , but why not Japan? Arm yourself to the teeth, show the world you are back, its just good business after all. Bet Abe's heart skipped a few beats and fluttered when Trump called them a warrior nation the other day.  Most of the kids are now officially oblivious to the sorrows and devastation of the last war, people who lived through it conveniently all dying off. Love this country, truly do, but nothing spooks me more than remilitarization. The cultural factors that lead to the last disaster are still there if not being deliberately re-nurtured.

The weapons industry is the biggest money maker there is. War is profitable. It kills the ordinary, regular and poor and makes unspeakable profits for its rich proponents.

The approaching conflict will kill untold numbers but the winners, as always, will be the dealers. Who can stop this disgusting trade?

Just say no.

So please remind me, why we do have all those US military bases all over Japan that we are paying billions of yen for? Are they implying that we are actually on our own because the US has not won a war since they beat us in WWII?

The salesman-in-chief gave his spiel and now they want to close the deal by creating a sense of urgency. Sales strategy 101.

US weapons industry lobbyists want Japan to buy more of it’s products. That’s it.

As soon as you read "RAND Corporation expert" you know you are dealing with a US military industrial complex shill and agitator. They've been playing this game for 70 years (if not longer), time we stopped listening to these scumbags.

My guess is that Japan will not purchase US missiles but secretly build own. More advanced missiles than N. Korean's. Japanese industries' tradition. Don't copy. Make better product.

the Rand Corporation, a U.S. research organization.

Funny. The RAND Corporation has been behind every American war of the last 70 years, it was behind the creation of the military-industrial complex and it's funded by the US military. What else are they going to say?

as a sovereign state, should Japan be capable of defending itself? Or, should it remain under the protectorate of the U.S., as in colonialist times.

By all means, this is a situation where Japan can't have it's cake and eat it too. Constitution calls for the country being a protectorate. And as long as the population feels the same way, status quo must not and should not change. That's it.

America is THE largest arms dealer in the world.

Trumps plan A

Arms sales bolstered by proxy (N. Korea threats) methods.

Knocking down a nuke over water or land is not a winning game as the results will shock and awe!

Do the US bases in Japan have the capability of destroying North Korea? Does the US Navy Pacific Fleet have the capability of destroying North Korea? Do the US bases in South Korea have the capability of destroying North Korea?

Why does Japan also need the capability of destroying North Korea? How many times does North Korea have to be destroyed to satisfy Trump's desire?

When starting wars, America often does not think through the consequences. If America destroyed North Korea, assuming it could do so without destroying South Korea at the same time, it would lose South Korea as an ally. In fact South Korea would hate America for doing so because so many South Koreans would lose relatives in the North.

Bombing does not win friends. It produces enemies.

Shouldn't the US be installing, manning and operating these weapons in Japan? Isn't the US responsible for Japans defence? They disarmed Japan and now in the face of a plausible threat are handing the job back to Japan! In the game of Rugby, this is known as a "hospital pass" when your team player passes you the ball when your opposition is bearing down on you at full speed and the second you catch the ball you're toast!

translation: "buy our military hardware"

The so-called "U.S. expert" cheerleading weapons purchases in this article is Jeffrey Hornung from the Rand Corporation.

Rand is an organization created by Douglas Aircraft Company to promote weapons sales for U.S. military industries.

YubaruToday 07:24 am JSTAs long as we are not talking abut "first strike" capability then I am all for it.

Just how in the world are you going to differentiate between the two? It's all a matter of who pushes the button first.

Exactly. If Japan pushes first it's a First Strike. If it pushes second, it's a counter-strike.

May as well print more yen and then waste them.

$$$

James Schoff, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,

Mr.Schoff used to work for the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense and a little known but spooky Washington think tank called the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis. The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis is heavily funded by, amongst others, the Smith Richardson Foundation, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation. All three foundations are generous donors to right wing, neo-liberal and neo-conservative groups and seek to use the vast sums of money at their disposal to influence American government policy to the benefit of their owners.

I wonder if DT has any shares in this missile co?

Japan should stay neutral and take better care of its aging population, NK is only against japan for Japan siding to close to USA in intimidating NK. All this is pushed by the American military industry that does not talk to NK but rather intimidate them into developing more weapons so the Americans can sell more weapons to their pawns. They have such bad trade balance and want to force the only product they can offer to reduce the gap. So they take your good useful products and want to pay you by giving you their useless military garbage of mass destruction. Do you expect that from a real friend?

One of RAND Corporation's main founders was General Henry Arnold. He was a key individual in the decision to mass slaughter Japanese civilians through firebombing/napalming.

And this from

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-japan-speech-not-pleasant-underestimate-us-hiroshima-nagasaki-atomic-bomb-north-korea-a8038551.html

And in a remark that held the potential to cause widespread offence in a country where America killed around 140,000 people in 1945 – when it dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the President added: “Every once in a while, in the past, they underestimated us. It was not pleasant for them, was it?”

Classy, as ever.

Somebody should remind him about Vietnam. That wasn't pleasant for the US, was it?

Still, it was even more unpleasant for the Vietnamese. Millions dead.

America should stop urging war against Asian nations. It's getting old and offensive.

Japan has been urged to go to wars by US, Japan-Shino War, Japan-Russia War, Japan-US War since Meiji Revolution, which was also caused by the West.  US ( the people who control US) seems to want wars until all the Japanese are extinct.

@tina - I guess this would be more reason for Japan to break free of the U.S. and establish its own defense. The U.S. forces can then be removed from Japan. On this issue it seems we are on the same side, no?

Strong opinion but a tad melodramatic.

Fransico Xaviel for one said that. And US air raids and two atomic bombs to intentionally kill innocent Japanese civilians.

Abe hyped threats from NK and China, now he has to pay for it.

Abe wants to be a world leader. Abe is proposing Indo-Pacific Alliances. There is no free lunch. Abe, get ready to buy aircraft carriers to patrol Indian Ocean, would you ?

New Indo-Pacific alliances make perfect sense and are an extremely sensible move.

Given that countries like France and the U.K, which have half the population of Japan and a considerably lower GDP have aircraft carriers, in fact the U.K has two new ones in the works, then I fail to see why Japan couldn't and shouldn't. More than capable of doing so. But I question the expensive of aircraft carriers now in the age of carrier destroyers which China and other nations possess. It seems like a lot of money to invest in a single asset. I think the money would be far more wisely spent or a number of offensive navy ships rather than a single aircraft carrier.

Also need to consider the demand for search and rescue type navy equipment which unfortunately under climate change will see a lot more extreme weather events in Asia and a far greater need to evacuate people quickly. Australia has invested in HMAS Canberra, partially, for that very reason - http://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-canberra-iii

A small company in Japan di NT copy and created 3&1/4 inch diskettes. TVs. and many other products are not copy of American products, Japan will not copy. Inferior American missiles.

Non sense. The very floppy disk was invented by IBM with the 8-inch disk in 1967. All floppy disks that came after were smaller variants of basically the same technology. 

The origin of the television dates back to the mechanically scanning graphics methods (mechanical television) developed notably by the Scottish inventor Alexander Bain in the early 19th century. Following that, Georges Rignoux and A. Fournier in Paris in 1909 demonstrated the first instantaneous transmission of images. Later the electronic television principles (most familiar to people) were invented by J. J. Thomson, an English physicist.

Japan was hardly behind any big invention, it was like China today, being good at producing in volume and at lower price technologies that it copied from somewhere else. 

 Missile protection system PAC3 and others only Japan can mass market fight now..

What does that even mean? For your information, the PAC-3 is a derivative of the MIM-104 Patriot system (a surface-to-air missile system) manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon. The PAC-3 is an upgrade of this system which took place in three stages deployed in 1995, 1996 and 2000, and units were designated Configuration 1, 2, or 3. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is the prime contractor on the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement upgrade to the Patriot air defense system, an interceptor system accepted by the U.S. Army on October 6, 2015.

Now concerning the PAC-3 Missile Segment interceptor, the THAAD system or the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System, all are known to be doubtfully effective (outside of the controlled and favorable flight tests) against real attacks with multiple intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting multiples targets at the same time. See here for more explanation:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-06/north-korea-missile-why-it-is-so-difficult-to-intercept-an-icbm/8684444

Theoretically the best phase to intercept a ballistic missile is during the orbital flight before it re-enters the atmosphere. Both the PAC-3 and the THAAD systems are designed to intercept during the terminal phase or late terminal phase, when the missile has re-entered the atmosphere heading towards the target. This is known to be poorly effective in real situations since the late interception stage implies that the trajectory is not know early and more intercepting missiles needs to be fired to intercept one ballistic missile, therefore consuming to much of them which could be used instead to protect other targets. 

Interception during the initial ballistic missile boost is also difficult as it requires a large amount of acceleration to catch it. This means that intercepting during the boost requires to have the interceptors launcher close to the ballistic missile firing location which is difficult to do or even to know.

The last and potentially most effective method of interception is during the orbital phase. The Aegis does that but difficulties are important since a well designed ballistic missile has countermeasures built-in in order to protect itself during this phase and which appear to be quite effective to defeat an interceptor. That being said, NK does not seem to have the countermeasure technologies in place at this moment.

U.S. experts urge Japan to get strike capability over N Korean threat

Disgraceful. Spread fear and then sell weapons. The US military industry could not be more happier to have two d.. heads like Abe and Trump. 

Now let's be realistic here. North Korea does not need to have nuclear ballistic missiles to make a mess in Japan. Japan has 54 commercial nuclear reactors (4 of them blew up already but are still potentially targets) hosted in power plants absolutely not designed to sustain the impact of conventional but powerful missiles. If NK decides to target all of them at the same time with a carpet of conventional missiles, Japan would have no way to stop all of them and only one needs to hit its target to make a disaster. Hitting a nuclear reactor would not trigger a nuclear explosion but the resulting radiation contamination will be way worse than a nuclear explosion. The same thing applies to South Korea and in that case Japan will be irradiated even without being directly hit.

With that in mind, US can sell all the military gears to its puppy Abe, Japan and US are not protecting anything. The only way out of this is with serious and mature diplomacy.

John - I am not saying Japan is or has ever been a colony. I fully understand Japan has never been.

However, if Japan is not a colony, then Japan should provide for its own self defense.

That is all

Gee i wonder who'd make a big fat profit out of that decision.

In addition to buying all that weaponry Japan gets to be the US's frontline cannon fodder.......Great stuff

Trump wants Japan to purchase military equipment -that might not be used- that's understandable but isn't it the duty of the U.S to protect Japan against military threats or just my imagination?

Why all the American military bases in Japan for?

strike capability, or what some refer to as "counterattack capability" as it envisages Tokyo acquiring the ability to undertake retaliatory strikes against an opponent's missile facilities and supporting infrastructure, as opposed to first-strike capability.

As long as we are not talking abut "first strike" capability then I am all for it.

Despite the likelihood that Seoul and Beijing would criticize Tokyo for "remilitarizing" itself with the proposed capability, Hornung said Pyongyang's advancing military capabilities have "drastically changed the threat environment."

Let's ask WHY South Korea would criticize? Japan does not criticize any militarization by South Korea. Both nations have received threats from North Korea that they will be turned into a "Sea of Fire/Blood".

Japan should have some strike capability, we are not talking about massive long range bombers but cruise missiles that can destroy any direct threat.

Toshiko, while Japan can develop their own Cruise and Hypersonic missiles, its far cheaper to buy them from the USA and gain a friend, somehow its gonna be a joint development since The American cruise missiles are close to perfect. Expect IHI or MHI to make a production line by 2024. Also expect to have like 2 Atago destroyers fitted with them by 2019. Article 9 will be changed after christmas.

Basically this is the issue between North Korea and America. Japan should not put too much pressures on North Korea as Abe is doing. It costs too much money and incurs dangers of war.

Arguing “first strike” vs “counter strikes” as being all defining, is overly simplifying missile warfare which is nothing like older conventional forms.

Abe wants to be a world leader. Abe is proposing Indo-Pacific Alliances. There is no free lunch. Abe, get ready to buy aircraft carriers to patrol Indian Ocean, would you ?

Do you really want Abe with his finger on the button?

That's as bad as Trump with his fat finger on the button!

The travelling salesman Trump says, "armaments, get your armaments! Stock up now! My successor (coming soon) might not want to sell you any at all!"

Better idea.  Buy missiles from DPRK.  Establishing trade relations could begin the road to peace.

"Experts" in what? Pushing the world towards nuclear destruction? They are NOT experts.

When we were using IBM 360 and 370 the floppy was about 1240 bytes memory. We used to have a large tapes to set on tall wide unit using feet steps. Inputting data with punch cards. After Sony created 3 and 1/4 desk tops speared IBM became obsolete. Now no. One use desk top comuter,, either. Memory capacity of flush vest are usually terabytes. ;

Trump tried to sell missiles to Japan and he said Abe Japan can sell cars in USA. Abe was silent. So he increased Defense Budget.

Abe might not but other Japanese officials are not eager to deal trading with Trump's proposal. Somfigure how China will handle Tramp. Forget S. Korea. It hates Japan more than N. Korea does.

In Japan, buying missiles may be criticized but secretly building missiles, war haters wouldn't notice.

I have long urged Abe to improve the relationship with China as soon as possible. Abe must maximize his energy and work 24 hours per day to visit China. Abe's policy is cancerous and he must cut the tumor off. Japan should be friend of both China and US. Japan can't afford to play petty role.

@Akie improving relationship with he likes Asian peooChina is easier than listening Trump. Trump love trading business with Japan and China but I don't think he likes Asian people.

Japan and China are trading partners. Trump is outsider.

toshiko, Do you think Abe loves Asian ? He plots to use 1.2 billion Indians against 1.4 Chinese, both are Asians.

I don't think Abe plotted a war in Asia. Japan hadn't plotter war in Asia. Japan stopped war after WWII. Amie, he was born after WWIi. He hasn't got a chance to. create war between China and. India, Akie.

YubaruToday 08:08 am JST

Exactly. If Japan pushes first it's a First Strike. If it pushes second, it's a counter-strike.

Yes, but you are the one who wrote;

As long as we are not talking abut "first strike" capability then I am all for it.

How are you going to stop them from pushing first?

Yes that is what I wrote and I think it's crystal clear. Who said ANYTHING about "stopping NK from pushing first"? I don't see any mention of that in the article. And how do you "stop them from pushing first" anyway? Honestly sometimes I have no idea where you are coming from.

I disagree Ossan. A small company in Japan di NT copy and created 3&1/4 inch diskettes. TVs. and many other products are not copy of American products, Japan will not copy. Inferior American missiles.

toshikoToday 10:49 am JSTI disagree Ossan. A small company in Japan di NT copy and created 3&1/4 inch diskettes. TVs. and many other products are not copy of American products, Japan will not copy. Inferior American missiles.

Fine for you to disagree,. I've watched Japanese products develop in the US Market since the 1960s. Are you aware that the term "manubu" comes from "maneru"? The first TV set manufactured in Japan was by Sharp in 1953. It followed a licensing agreement with RCA (Radio Corp of America) in 1952. Copying is the first step to modifying then improving then adopting the changes to create a product far better than the original. Considering that Japan does not manufacture cruise missiles there's no such thing as inferior or superior.

@Fred - I understand your argument related to the Constitution, but Japan is already in violation as we all know.

Reading yours and additional comments from a non Japanese audience either living in (or having some interest in Japan) it seems that most posters on this website believe Japan should not be allowed to defend itself and remain a puppet of a foreign power.

In this case it could be also argued that Japan wants it cake and wants to eat it too. Japan wishes to be considered a major player on the international stage but cannot take care if its own defense.

By the way I am as much against the military industrial complex as anyone else here however the world has proven to be (from inception) a place where human beings fight and kill each other. Additionally the rate of acceleration of China's military build up is staggering.

Return of the Samurai.

If Trump stop American wars all over in the world ,, he will not have to ask too much military bdget Orr asking Japan to buy old missiles.

mrtinjpNov. 7 02:28 pm JSTIn response to an unprovoked attack by North Korea on South Korea. The "US and Allies" were the United Nations Command involving 26 nations from all over the world.

And why was Korea divided in the first place ? that unprovoked attack was more on lines of eliminating that division.

Because towards the end of WWII the USSR became active is expanding it's communist sphere of interest. For countries in Europe that meant the Soviet Red Army that "liberated" them from the Germans would remain and a pro-Moscow government would be created. Just as Germany was divided so too was the Korean Peninsula.

Korea was "divided in the first place" because the USSR was expanding it's sphere of influence. The ROK, South Korea was established fist by the US and allies. The Soviets quickly moved to create North Korea to divide the peninsula.

Yes that "unprovoked attack" was a unilateral effort to eliminate the division by conquering all Korea and making it entirely the DPRK.

LandofExcusesNov. 8 02:10 pm JSTYou played with fire before, Japan... Remember what happened?

Yes they totally overran China. Only the US and western allies could defeat them.

I've always believed that Japan does not have nuclear weapons, but does have nuclear weapons parts lying in close formation - a few screwdriver turns away from air-delivered pain to an enemy.

No rational leaders of any nation would depend on another for defense.

one must question why you were down-voted twice for suggesting Japan have the ability to defend itself.

Because most readers of Japantoday are extreme liberals who always look down on civilized countries and feel they are morally superior when they defend evildoers (like our "friend" Kim Jong Un).

Japan was hardly behind any big invention, it was like China today, being good at producing in volume and at lower price technologies that it copied from somewhere else.

But Japanese didn't just copy and produce in mass. That's typical of the Chinese, who by the way, don't make high quality products. Japanese inventors/manufacturers produce not so much in mass, but articles of superb quality.

Japanese were the ones who invented DVDs, and co-invented CDs, among many groundbreaking advances in information technologies. Also, Japanese products tend to have superb quality, which is something they should be proud of. Sure, people from Europe and the U.S have invented many more things, but it is necessary to give credit where it's due.

toshikoToday 07:18 am JSTMy guess is that Japan will not purchase US missiles but secretly build own. More advanced missiles than N. Korean's. Japanese industries' tradition. Don't copy. Make better product.

Disagree. The tradition is copy, modify, improve then make a new product. Which works for consumer products but for military products like missiles not only will the necessary R&D costs be high but Japan would need to enter the international market in a big way to make it meet ends. I don't see this happening with combat weaponry. Equipment, support craft, yes even within the current constitution as it is.

@Fred - as a sovereign state, should Japan be capable of defending itself? Or, should it remain under the protectorate of the U.S., as in colonialist times.

This is a serious question and not meant to be provocative.

@KiyoshiMukai - one must question why you were down-voted twice for suggesting Japan have the ability to defend itself.

Donald you think this will help with the trade imbalance but J will take your TVs, cars, and missiles, and build them better. Theres nothing in the constitution that says J can’t manufacture and export weapons

Trump offered miss, le sales. Trump. said tooo Abe. 'sell cars in USA to. Pay for missillles' Abe ignored. Trump gave up to sell out of dated American missiles and demanding huge defense budget.

Interesting how many here advocate Japan building its weapons systems. Problem is, Japan doesn't have its own home-grown anti-missile missle system, cruise missiles or any first-strike weapons systems in place RIGHT NOW.

So, it will have to buy it. But many here disapproves buying its weapons systems from the U.S.  Maybe Japan should buy from China or Russia instead?. @Burning Bush won't be spouting his anti-US and anti-Lockheed diatribe.

But Article 9 prohibits a military force beyond defense-only and prohibits a "military-industrial complex" to arm and support such a military force, doesn't it?  And yet you all are opposed to Abe from changing Article 9 to remove the restrictions.

You can't have it both ways.

On the other hand, by changing Article 9 to allow Japan to rearm itself with a first strike military capability, Japan won't have to rely on the U.S. to protect Japan and Okinawa.

Then the U.S. can withdraw its military forces from Okinawa and Japan.  That's what you all want, right?

Maybe Trump has that in mind.

You played with fire before, Japan... Remember what happened?

US ( the people who control US) seems to want wars until all the Japanese are extinct.

Strong opinion but a tad melodramatic.

Priority Number 1. Do not have the Japanese nation feel helpless running for shelters in the wake of external aggression, i.e. NKor threats.

Priority Number 2. Wait 'til the Sino threats come in. By then it may be too late. Uncle Sam is a great ally, but it is not a component of the JSDF. If not "strike", get "counter-strike" capabilities. Quick time.

Japan is good in markings prodtin any country. Missile protection system PAC3 and others only Japan can mass market fight now..

Schopenhauer, Abe promised to maximize pressure to NK. He can't lie to his friend Donald.

Would have thought the threat against the Senkaku islands is a more well founded threat than North Korean blabber and its defense of that territory that should be the priority.

Tokyo Eng : Japan has never been a colony off any nation.

If searching for a word, It would be occupied. Japan surrendered to U.S.G. The United State of Gun. The Japan nation has never been defeated on it own soil.

Where Island nation like Britain, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus have been defeated and local culture destroyed. Women equality is the same has before the WW2. The Japanese culture has not really changed just the the lower classes are not slave but get pay third world earnings and conditions.

When the hens come home to roost, I'll be the first to comment on how ludicrous all proponents of re-armament were. It's pretty telling how none of you question the role of the us army in Japan. Re-armament only implies the army has failed it's mandate as protector and must leave asap. Truly can't wait.

Don’t look now fat boi’, there’s about to be a old kid on the block with some NEW toys.

Basically this is the issue between North Korea and America. Japan should not put too much pressures on North Korea as Abe is doing. It costs too much money and incurs dangers of war.

Really now? With over half a million Korean's living in Japan it certainly pertains to Japan and SK as well!

Exactly. If Japan pushes first it's a First Strike. If it pushes second, it's a counter-strike.

Yes, but you are the one who wrote;

As long as we are not talking abut "first strike" capability then I am all for it.

How are you going to stop them from pushing first?

Acquiring missile strike and nuclear capabilities is in the long term interest of Japan.So step up Japan must step up its R & D efforts in this field.