US and Japan 'seamlessly' join armed forces

While sky-watchers in Tokyo enjoyed a total eclipse of the moon on Wednesday night, Daniel Russel and his entourage from the United States enjoyed themselves too. Japanese Defense Minister Akinori Eto threw a dinner in honor of the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs to celebrate the framework they have worked out for the new Japan-US defense cooperation guidelines.

The interim report, published that day, highlights swift and robust responses to "gray zone" scenarios that do not qualify as direct attacks, and calls for seamless cooperation between Japan's Self-Defense Forces and US forces in response to both peacetime and military contingencies.

The word "seamless" appears seven times in the five-page report, and it epitomizes the landmark change in the security cooperation that Japan and the United States will develop in the future.

The report also shows the two countries are resolved to expand the scope of cooperation to reflect the global nature of their alliance.

Although their security cooperation has already expanded on a global scale, ranging from refueling in the Indian Ocean, postwar reconstruction assistance to Iraq, measures to deal with pirates, to natural disaster relief efforts. The report deleted "areas surrounding Japan", the geographical limitation to Japanese cooperation that exists in the current guidelines, paving the way for Japan's Self-Defense Forces to send personnel and equipment anywhere in the world to assist the US military.

Russel said the proposed changes are a response to "serious ongoing threats" ahead.

Based on the report, Japan and the US are expected to revise their guidelines for defense cooperation at the end of the year. The guidelines for the Japan-US alliance were introduced in 1978 during the Cold War, and were revised in 1997 to prepare for a contingency on the Korean Peninsula.

The interim report follows the Japanese government's decision at a Cabinet meeting in July to reinterpret Japan's war-renouncing Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.