Newsletter No. 342
News-Analysis
July 27, 2006

 

WASHINGTON REQUESTS A FURTHER EXTENSION OF THE MSDF MISSION IN THE INDIAN OCEAN

Japanese news services are reporting that U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Peter Rodman, meeting with LDP Vice-President Taku Yamasaki at the Pentagon on the 25th, requested that Tokyo extend the MSDF mission in the Indian Ocean beyond its current November 1st deadline. Reasons given for the extension request included that "multinational forces are on full alert in the Indian Ocean as the Taliban-led insurgency is intensifying in southern Afghanistan."

Yamasaki was apparently not very excited about the prospect, telling Rodman that it would require "a lot of political energy" to extend the mission once again.

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation the same day, Yamasaki made some other interesting comments. He warned that "If there is a movement within my party, the Liberal Democratic Party, to pull the country into a warlike direction, Japan is a democracy and my party could be chased out of the government."

Although Yamasaki is a close personal friend of Koizumi, he has opposed the Yasukuni visits and tried to warn his friend about the dangers of rising nationalism among the younger LDP leaders. The Prime Minister has consistently dismissed Yamasaki's advice.

His fear of rising nationalism in Japan probably explains why Yamasaki was cool to Rodman's request, but it is likely to be Shinzo Abe, not Yamasaki, who will make the final decision on this matter -- and Abe is one of the leaders of the young nationalists.