China in World Affairs: The Foreign Policy of the Prc Since 1970 by G. W. Choudhury

Author:G. W. Choudhury [Choudhury, G. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Political Science, World, Asian, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9780429716157
Google: ICqNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-03-01T07:03:48+00:00

Impact of the Afghan Crisis on Japan

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan has added substantial momentum to the already growing campaign for a greater Japanese military budget-government and political leaders sensitive to shifts in public sentiment say the "trend is toward support for more military spending."71 There are several factors that are responsible for the change in Japanese public opinion in favor of larger military expenditures. One is the fear that the United States would reduce its presence in Asia after the Vietnam War and leave Japan vulnerable to Soviet pressures. Another is the fact that China now endorses Japanese rearmament after once fiercely opposing it. A third is the growing Soviet military presence in the Kuril Islands, coupled with Moscow's deployment of SS-20 missiles and Backfire bombers in the Far East.

"The impact of Afghanistan on Japanese public opinion has been quite substantial," said Michita Sakata, chairman of a newly formed security committee, and the inauguration of that committee in March 1980 was itself a reflection of the changed attitude toward military spending. Outside the Soviet sphere, Afghanistan is considered an independent Third World country, he said, and the invasion makes the Japanese think about what might occur in their own country.72

Defense officials in the United States have urged Japan to increase its military spending and expand protection for its ships at sea in the light, of some Soviet military moves. The U.S. defense secretary, Harold Brown, visited Japan in January 1980, after an eight-day visit to China where he had explored Sino-American military cooperation, not alliance, in the wake of the Afghan crisis. Brown advised the Japanese leaders that because of Soviet moves-he cited the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the buildup of Soviet forces on the Kuril Islands north of Japan—Japan should reassess and increase its defense spending over a period of time. Brown, to the delight of Japan's defense agency, wanted an acceleration of that agency's intermediate-range plan, which envisions reaching defense spending equal to 1 percent of Japan's gross national product by 1985. Brown also reported that China, because of its own anxiety about the Soviet moves, would welcome Japan's military strength. The U.S. pressure for Japan's increased military spending was unusually direct after the Afghan crisis, and maybe that crisis will lead to the emergence of an effective cooperation among Washington, Beijing, and Tokyo.73

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