No. 1314 Guidelines on Control of JCG by SDF in Emergency
The Japan Coast Guard (JCG), the police of the sea, is now being incorporated to the Self Defense Forces (SDF). The government recently finalized a manual on procedures by which the defense minister shall take control of the JCG in the event of armed attack against the country. If the JCG is viewed as a military organization, that will cause risks of armed confrontation in peacetime.
GOVERNMENT IS TO INCORPORATE JCG TO SDF
As for the manual on procedures taken by the defense minister when the Coast Guard is held under his/her command, its compilation had been set in the three documents approved in the Cabinet meeting last December. The government regards the JCG as imperative in terms of national security concerns, emphasizing its closer links with the SDF in a steady manner.
The government is intended to entrust the coast guard personnel to logistics support to let the SDF concentrate in military operations, but the law on JCG prohibits military activities under its article 25. The JCG personnel are, reportedly, worrying about that they might be caught in combat situations bit by bit as the article is being eroded.
Not open to the public
The government has issued the instruction manual, passing cabinet meetings and Diet sessions. It explains that details cannot be open visibly, such as division of roles. The document will not go open. The same tactics is seen as the government took when conditions for execution of military counteroffensive were set.
The law on the SDF was legislated in 1954, and under its article 80 the JCG shall be under the command of Defense Minister in the event of an emergency, but no concrete regulations were stipulated. It is because the JCG is forbidden to resort to military roles under the article 25 of its law. It was enacted in 1948 by the initiative of the GHQ, or the General Headquarters of Allied Forces. In the same way as Article Nine of the Constitution, the GHQ was fixed to stop re-militarization of Japan.
The article 25 of the JCG law says: any provision of this law can never be interpreted that the coast guard entity itself and its personnel can be organized and trained as a military troop and perform a military role.
JCG has contributed to maintaining peace
It is said that the JCG, relying on its article 25, has worked precisely as the police of the sea on the frontlines to defend the territorial and contiguous waters, which is an effective legacy in maintaining peace in the region. A former high-ranking official of the JCG appreciates that ‘neighbors have seen us as a purely police-function body and the JCG has worked as a buffer to evade armed confrontation’.
Nevertheless, for the article 25, some conservative groups in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have intensified lately their moves to abolish or revise it. Their incentive lies in a fact that the Chinese government changed in 2021 the Chinese Maritime Police, which the JCG faces in the areas of the Senkaku Islands, to a para-military organization from its administrative status.
It is reported that in the new guidelines commandment of the defense minister is limited to cases when the country is attacked by a foreign country, the JCG’s function as the police remains the same and their responsibilities are focused on evacuation of residents, rescue missions and logistics. In the event of emergency, however, there is no border to separate battle zones from rear-areas. It is quite natural for coast guard personnel to worry about, saying ‘I may go to the sea for policing, but I may be caught in a combat zone’.
The guidelines were set in April, the JCG and the SDF held their first tabletop exercise in May, assuming a contingency of an armed attack, and had a joint drill in June. Rapidly the two organizations are being united with each other.
警察機関の海上保安庁と自衛隊の一体化が進む。政府は、有事に防衛相が海保を指揮する手順「統制要領」を決定した。海保が軍隊と見なされれば、平時に武力衝突を誘発するリスクが生じる。
統制要領は、岸田内閣が昨年12月に閣議決定した安全保障３文書に策定を明記した。海保を安保上の不可欠な存在と位置付け、自衛隊との連携の「不断の強化」を強調している。
有事に後方支援を海保に任せ、自衛隊を軍事作戦に集中させるためだが、軍事的活動を禁じた海上保安庁法25条が形骸化し、海上保安官は、「なし崩し的に戦闘に巻き込まれるのでは」と不安を口にしているという。
「要領」公表せず
政府は統制要領を閣議や国会に諮らず決めた。詳細な役割分担など明らかにできない点があるとし、公式文書の統制要領を公表していない。敵基地攻撃能力の行使要件と同じ対応だ。
１９５４年に制定された自衛隊法80条で、有事には海保が防衛相の指揮下に入るとされたが、具体的な仕組みはなかった。背景に、「軍隊の機能を認めない」と定めた海保庁法25条がある。制定は48年で連合国軍総司令部（ＧＨＱ）の主導とされるが、憲法９条同様、日本の再軍備を阻む思惑があったという。
25条は「この法律のいかなる規定も海上保安庁又はその職員が軍隊として組織され、訓練され、又は軍隊の機能を営むことを認めるものとこれを解釈してはならない」とする。
平和維持に貢献
25条に基づき、領海警備の矢面に警察機関の海保が立ってきたことが平和維持に大きな効果をもたらしたという。「他国から純粋な警察機関と見られ、武力衝突を避ける緩衝材となってきた」と海保元幹部は評価する。
ところが、自民党保守派を中心に25条の廃止や改定の動きが強まった。海保が尖閣諸島周辺で対峙する中国海警局に関し、中国政府が21年に行政組織から準軍事組織に変更したことなどが理由だ。
統制要領では防衛相の指揮は武力攻撃を受けた場合などに限定、警察機関の性格も変えず、任務も住民避難や捜索など後方支援に絞ったとされる。しかし、有事では前線も後方も区別はない。「警備に出たのに、戦闘に加わる日が来るかも」という海上保安官の心配は当然だ。
統制要領は４月に決定、海保と自衛隊は、武力攻撃事態を想定し５月に机上、６月に実動訓練を実施と急ピッチで一体化が進んでいる。
英訳版↓
No. 1314 Guidelines on Control of JCG by SDF in Emergency
The Japan Coast Guard (JCG), the police of the sea, is now being incorporated to the Self Defense Forces (SDF). The government recently finalized a manual on procedures by which the defense minister shall take control of the JCG in the event of armed attack against the country. If the JCG is viewed as a military organization, that will cause risks of armed confrontation in peacetime.
GOVERNMENT IS TO INCORPORATE JCG TO SDF
As for the manual on procedures taken by the defense minister when the Coast Guard is held under his/her command, its compilation had been set in the three documents approved in the Cabinet meeting last December. The government regards the JCG as imperative in terms of national security concerns, emphasizing its closer links with the SDF in a steady manner.
The government is intended to entrust the coast guard personnel to logistics support to let the SDF concentrate in military operations, but the law on JCG prohibits military activities under its article 25. The JCG personnel are, reportedly, worrying about that they might be caught in combat situations bit by bit as the article is being eroded.
Not open to the public
The government has issued the instruction manual, passing cabinet meetings and Diet sessions. It explains that details cannot be open visibly, such as division of roles. The document will not go open. The same tactics is seen as the government took when conditions for execution of military counteroffensive were set.
The law on the SDF was legislated in 1954, and under its article 80 the JCG shall be under the command of Defense Minister in the event of an emergency, but no concrete regulations were stipulated. It is because the JCG is forbidden to resort to military roles under the article 25 of its law. It was enacted in 1948 by the initiative of the GHQ, or the General Headquarters of Allied Forces. In the same way as Article Nine of the Constitution, the GHQ was fixed to stop re-militarization of Japan.
The article 25 of the JCG law says: any provision of this law can never be interpreted that the coast guard entity itself and its personnel can be organized and trained as a military troop and perform a military role.
JCG has contributed to maintaining peace
It is said that the JCG, relying on its article 25, has worked precisely as the police of the sea on the frontlines to defend the territorial and contiguous waters, which is an effective legacy in maintaining peace in the region. A former high-ranking official of the JCG appreciates that ‘neighbors have seen us as a purely police-function body and the JCG has worked as a buffer to evade armed confrontation’.
Nevertheless, for the article 25, some conservative groups in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have intensified lately their moves to abolish or revise it. Their incentive lies in a fact that the Chinese government changed in 2021 the Chinese Maritime Police, which the JCG faces in the areas of the Senkaku Islands, to a para-military organization from its administrative status.
It is reported that in the new guidelines commandment of the defense minister is limited to cases when the country is attacked by a foreign country, the JCG’s function as the police remains the same and their responsibilities are focused on evacuation of residents, rescue missions and logistics. In the event of emergency, however, there is no border to separate battle zones from rear-areas. It is quite natural for coast guard personnel to worry about, saying ‘I may go to the sea for policing, but I may be caught in a combat zone’.
The guidelines were set in April, the JCG and the SDF held their first tabletop exercise in May, assuming a contingency of an armed attack, and had a joint drill in June. Rapidly the two organizations are being united with each other.
July 12, 2023