A campaign has begun in several Asian countries to oppose deployment of Japanese military forces outside Japan. Both in Japan and in the Philippines, Malaysia, Nepal and India, there has been increasing opposition to any revival of Japan's military power.
In Japan itself, considerable controversy has been generated concretely in relation to Japanese financial and military support for the United Nations force in Cambodia (UNTAC).
A Japanese official, Akashi Yasushi, heads the UNTAC operation. Japan has also made large financial contributions and has soldiers deployed in Cambodia. Because the constitution forbids the use of Japanese military forces outside the country, a special law had to be passed to permit participation in UNTAC.
Top UN officials are on record urging Japan to change its constitution. In a February 1993 interview with Kyodo News Agency, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali stated: "My hope is that the government of Japan will be able to change the Constitution so that it will allow the Japanese forces to participate in operations of peace enforcement."
"Peace enforcement" is different than "peacekeeping", implying more aggressive use of military force. The current actions in Somali would be a good example. Boutros-Ghali has been campaigning for the idea of a UN rapid deployment force, which would be strengthened by Japanese participation.
Within the Japanese ruling class there is no real debate over whether Japan should become more militarily active. The government is very keen to become an additional permanent member of the UN Security Council. While Japanese economic clout is sufficient to demand such a role, it would be difficult to sit in the Security Council helping to devise "peace enforcement" projects but being unable to participate in such interventions.
The main debate in ruling circles is whether
constitutional change is necessary or whether a simple "re-interpretation" of the constitution would be adequate.
Progressive groups in Japan have opposed any such moves. More than 350 people protested against Boutros-Ghali's visit in February, and more demonstrated when he spoke later at the United Nations University in Tokyo.
Now an Asia-wide campaign has been launched opposing the overseas deployment of the Japanese Self-Defence Forces (SDF), as the Japanese army is called. The campaign is also targeted against any Japanese-US military alliance.
In a statement issued in June to commemorate the anniversary of the law allowing the deployment of SDF forces in Cambodia, the "Asia Wide Campaign Against US-Japan Military Alliance" declared: "The potential target of and pretext for intervention has merely shifted from the former Soviet Union to 'regional conflicts' in Asia-Pacific — a euphemism for the inevitable upsurge of anti-imperialist and national liberation movements in the region".
The statement also opposed any security arrangements between the US and Asian governments that are designed to help the US remain in the region, and the US-Japan Mutual Defence Treaty.
The campaign has now received support from Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), the Kilusang Mayo Uno Tarde Union Federation (KMU) and Youth for Democracy and Nationalism (KADENA) in the Philippines, the Partai Rakyat Malaysia (Malaysian Peoples Party), the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions, the Indian Peoples' Front, the Taiwanese Labour Rights Association and progressive Indonesian groups.