Japan Ruling Bloc to Start Talks on Collective Self-Defense

Tokyo, Aug. 13 (Jiji Press)--Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, New Komeito, will shortly begin talks among their working-level officials on the country's rights to collective self-defense. With a government panel on legal frameworks for Japan's national security seen drawing up a report on the collective self-defense rights by the end of the year at the earliest, the two parties see the need to coordinate their views on the issue. But they are expected to face difficulties in finding common ground, sources said. The LDP is positive about allowing the nation to exercise its rights to collective self-defense, while New Komeito hopes to keep unchanged the government's current interpretation of the Japanese war-renouncing constitution, which prohibits the country from exercising the rights. In talks last Wednesday, LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba and New Komeito Secretary-General Yoshihisa Inoue agreed on the need to set up a consultative body to discuss the issue between the two parties. The two will meet again later this month to discuss details of the ruling bloc forum, including who should be members. In a set of proposals submitted in 2008 to the cabinet of then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the government panel on security-related legal frameworks said that the country should be allowed to exercise the rights so it can intercept ballistic missiles that may be targeting the United States and protect U.S. warships on the high seas. The panel, which is poised to resume talks next month, is expected to call on the current government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to consider allowing Japan to exercise the rights comprehensively by citing several examples, according to a source close to Abe. But New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi has said that his party cannot tolerate the country being allowed to exercise the rights based on the government's current constitutional interpretation. If New Komeito gives ground on this issue, it will lose its identity as a pacifist party, some sources said. A senior New Komeito official warned that the issue could affect whether the party can continue its coalition partnership with the LDP. Yamaguchi said in a television program last month that if a U.S. warship is attacked when sailing side by side with a Japanese Self-Defense Forces ship, it would be possible for the SDF vessel to counterattack based on Japan's individual self-defense rights by regarding the attack as one targeted at itself. Such a counterattack is allowed under the current constitutional interpretation, he noted. Following the remarks by Yamaguchi, New Komeito is expected to seek solutions other than to change the constitutional interpretation. However, a New Komeito executive cautioned that the LDP may ignore the opinion of the coalition partner, as the need for electoral cooperation between the two parties could weaken amid speculation that there will be no nationwide parliamentary election before 2016, when the terms of office expire for lawmakers of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, and House of Councillors lawmakers, who won seats in the 2010 election. The LDP and New Komeito recaptured a combined majority in the Upper House with their victory in the July 21 election, a development that ended Japan's divided parliament. END