Left Flank

The Economist manages to string together three stories about the Japan-US alliance, and to be wrong:

• The 2-11-08 arrest of an American soldier for rape.
• The election of Fûkûdá Yoshihiko as Iwakuni mayor.
• Another Soviet  Russian Tupolev 95 "Bear" bomber incident.

Actually, I would argue that The Economist is trying to trivialize the first item to emphasize the salience of the latter two. To be fair, Japundit's Edward Ohmura is right about the the US Marines' track record in Okinawa. But, that doesn't mean the Japan-US alliance is just as important as it ever was, and the Fûkûdá national government is lucky that Iwakuni understands that.

The Economist neglects to mention, as Japan Observer points above, that Tokyo threatened to withhold funds if Iwakuni voted against the Okinawa relocation plan allowing the US Marines to stay. Voters in Iwakuni clearly made the decision out of self-interest, not for the love of the alliance.

This raises two points. The Japan-US alliance is "corrosive". It has undermined the budget process between Tokyo and the cities.

Secondly, Russia in the Far East is not the threat it was, and Guam is just as good as Okinawa for the USAF. But, what is not good for the alliance is the disrespect for Japan's sovereignty manifested in the Iwakuni mayoral election. I agree with Japan Observer, that the US needs to formulate a contemporary Far East strategy (and not this kind of plan), and do its diplomatic best to sell it to its allies in the region before it loses them.

I don't understand the significance of this report by the left-leaning Asahi about the emergency scrambling by SDF jets on September 11 and 23, 2007 in response to PRC bombers near the Shirakaba/Chunxiao gas fields in the East China Sea. Is it a bipartisan reminder of the perfidy of Beijing meant to sour the latest Sino-Japanese summit?

Or, is it a piece of the "bluster and fear" Japan Observer (and the comments section is must-read, too) claims is the Japanese right's only strength?

One problem with this approach is that unless Japan rids itself of its security relationship with the US in near future, Japan's conservatives are dependent on the US government's sharing their views on Asia. Japan alone is not in a position to force China to change on any of the issues identified by Mr. Komori as problematic. Any confrontational approach would have to occur in sync with the US, with the US taking the lead. As we have seen in regard to both North Korea and Taiwan under the Bush administration, there is no guarantee that Washington will be on the side of Japanese conservatives even under a bellicose Republican administration. (On the economic front, though, perhaps Mr. Komori and his ilk should hope for a Democratic victory.)

Despite their lack of a concrete and constructive foreign policy agenda — no, the arc of freedom and prosperity does not count — the conservatives will undoubtedly step up their pressure on Mr. Fûkûdá on foreign policy in the New Year.

Just another little taste of how exciting 2008 could become...

Korean national pride doesn't seem to be the only reason both Japan and ROK might build fighter jets independently of the US.

Japanese military officials have been discussing a possible F-22A purchase with the United States for more than two years, and several of the aircraft have made visits to Japanese air bases, but Congressional and other opposition to selling the U.S. Air Force's top-of-the-line stealthy fighter appears to still be enough to block the sale. Despite the fact that Japan is perhaps the number one security partner of the United States in the region, there is still a mindset within the U.S. Government that is hesitant to export the new-age technologies that are the basis for the Raptor's performance and combat effectiveness.

This past August the House Appropriations Committee passed legislation banning the export of the F-22A to any foreign government. DoD officials in Washington said this would derail plans by Israel and Japan to obtain the advanced fighter sometime during the next three years, Middle East Newsline reported.

The F-22A would be a suitable procurement for both American allies, and even without that option, research assistance from American firms would also be beneficial, especially to Seoul. The optimal solution would be to let each ally contribute to the F-35 program. But, Seoul is not the only putative ally bent on feeding its own industrial offspring. «In Japan the main reason for upgrading airplanes is not to provide the armed forces with a higher capability. Instead it is to give money to Japanese aerospace industry and maintain the industrial base.»

But then, there's the DPRK problem. Just how trustworthy is Seoul (and, to a lesser extent, Tokyo), none too secure from North Korean spies and eager to build mutual defense ties with its authoritarian neighbor, with any defense knowledge and technology. The F-22A sits atop the fault line between economic globalization and national defense, between corporations and air forces. Looking at this procurement tangle, Washington could indeed be justified in its paranoia.

The Arsenal of Democracy is no longer in business.