No. 1347 Export of Weapons and Bill on Security Clearance
It is a year since the government’s decision was made on the three documents on national security. Now at this moment the Kishida government has stepped in quagmire where it prepares for wars. The rule to prohibit exporting lethal weapons has been lifted up, a bill is ready on security clearance and the controversial 43 trillion yen of military budget is to be compiled. We see destabilized international situations and recurring military industries in the background of these developments.
GOVERNMENT HAS S TUCKED IN THE MUD OF WAR PREPARATION
The NATO member states accelerate their efforts to boost military build-up on account of the necessity to ‘defend’ themselves from Russia independently, assuming that Mr. Trump would again enter the political stage: the European nations had confirmed the target to spend over 2% of their GNPs on national defense by the year 2024, while the US presidential candidate has a policy that ‘the US will not help (European nations), if they do not pay’.
World’s military spending has increased by 15%
The EU has compiled a ‘Strategy on European Defense Industries’ to enhance their own military sector by allocating a tremendous sum of money. According to the Military Balance 2024 issued by the US Research Institute on International Strategy, the world’s military expenditure of the year 2023 counts approximately 329 trillion yen, the largest in the history and with an increase by 9% compared with that of the previous year. The current figure, compared with the result of the year 2021, or before the military conflict in Ukraine, shows a surge by 15%.
The US is ready to enlarge production capacity of weapons in 2024, importing back from Japan interceptor Patriot missiles produced here to send them to Ukraine, though her armament production capabilities have been pressed due to the grant of arsenal to the European conflict zone.
Immediately after the Cold War the international community shared the agreed target of SDGs and many investments were thwarted from the military field and, thus, businesses were stagnant in this sector. But the trend has changed, shifting to a concept in which it is necessary to hinder the ‘change of status quo’ by military strength in order to bring forth the ‘sustainable’ world. Consequently, ‘merchants of death’ have arisen, coming out of the bottom. This fact actually disrupts ceasefire in the conflict in Ukraine and discourages cessation of genocide in Palestine.
Budget of 43 trillion yen must be withdrawn!
The government tries to join hastily the world’s club. Honorary Chairman of the Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, Sakakibara Sadayuki, told in the experts’ meeting of the Ministry of Defense held in February that reviewing ‘the military expenditure amounting 43 trillion yen’ should not be treated as taboo, questioning whether the sum is sufficient for reinforcement.
The said meeting was attended, too, by Chairman Miyanaga Shun’ichi of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The company is planned to upsurge its business to a size of 1 trillion yen by the year 2027 in its total sales, or to double the today’s achievement, by exporting the next generation of fighter jets to third countries. The export of such aircraft is a focal point in the defense industry circle. The company involves in arms production, racing with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Today ‘merchants of deaths’ have become international. Japan is the primary nation to enclose China, engaged in the common operations together with the US and NATO. Development and specifications of weapons should essentially be identical among them.
It is crucial to conceal technical information in the joint development efforts with other countries, and its leaks to ‘adversaries’, like China, must be prevented. Employees of these companies must be under perpetual surveillance and control of personal activities. Weapons should be sold anywhere in the world and their lethal effects should be verified in the battlefields.
A bill on security clearance is raised to parliamentary debates. The Kishida government is to lastly approve the issue to ‘export next generation fighter jets’ only in the Cabinet. These attempts are united as a set to attain the goal of the administration. We cannot tolerate the belligerent forces and the ambitions and free stalking of ‘merchants of death’.
日本は、「安保三文書」決定から１年余を経て戦争準備の泥沼に踏み込んだ。殺傷兵器輸出の解禁、「適性評価」法案、軍事費43兆円などだ。背後に国際情勢の不安定化と軍需産業の台頭がある。
ＮＡＴＯ加盟国は24年までに国防費の対ＧＤＰ比２％以上目標を確認していたが、「金を出さないなら助けない」というトランプ氏の再登場を想定し、自力で対ロシア「防衛」が必要と軍拡に拍車をかけている。
世界の軍費15％増
ＥＵは「欧州防衛産業戦略」を策定し、域内防衛産業育成のために巨額の資金を拠出する。米国際戦略研の『ミリタリーバランス』24年版によれば、23年の世界の軍事費は前年比９％増、約３２９兆円と過去最大。ウクライナ戦争前の21年に比べ15％増だ。
米国はウクライナへの供与で武器生産が逼ひっぱく迫し、日本が生産した迎撃ミサイル・パトリオットを逆輸入して玉突きでウクライナに供与しながら、24年には生産能力拡大を見込む。
ポスト冷戦期にはＳＤＧｓが規範化され、投資先も軍事部門は敬遠されて軍需産業は衰退。しかし、「力による現状変更」を武力で阻止するのが「持続可能な」世界の必要事だとなり、「死の商人」が息を吹き返した。また、それがウクライナ戦争の停戦とガザの殺戮停止を阻害する要因となっている。
43兆円は見直せ！
そして、日本は「世界」の仲間入りを急ぐ。２月の防衛省有識者会議で榊原定征経団連名誉会長は「43兆円で防衛力強化はできるのか。見直しをタブー視するな」と述べた。
その場には三菱重工の宮永俊一会長もいた。三菱重工は第三国への輸出が焦点の次期戦闘機を中心に「防衛事業」の売上高を27年までに２倍の１兆円規模にする計画。川崎重工なども競って兵器生産に参入している。
現代の「死の商人」は国際的だ。対中軍事包囲の中軸・日本は、米国、ＮＡＴＯとの共同作戦で臨む。兵器の開発・規格とも共通仕様が不可欠だ。
技術情報の秘匿は他国との共同開発に必須だし、中国など「敵対国」に漏れるなどもってのほか。関係社員は、つねに身辺調査・監視され、兵器はどこにでも売れ、殺傷能力は戦場で実証実験されなければならない。
国会提出されている「適性評価制度」法案、閣議決定ですまそうとしている「次期戦闘機輸出」はセットでこうした意図をはらんでいる。好戦勢力と「死の商人」の野望・跋ばっこ扈を許してはならない。
英訳版↓
No. 1347 Export of Weapons and Bill on Security Clearance
It is a year since the government’s decision was made on the three documents on national security. Now at this moment the Kishida government has stepped in quagmire where it prepares for wars. The rule to prohibit exporting lethal weapons has been lifted up, a bill is ready on security clearance and the controversial 43 trillion yen of military budget is to be compiled. We see destabilized international situations and recurring military industries in the background of these developments.
GOVERNMENT HAS S TUCKED IN THE MUD OF WAR PREPARATION
The NATO member states accelerate their efforts to boost military build-up on account of the necessity to ‘defend’ themselves from Russia independently, assuming that Mr. Trump would again enter the political stage: the European nations had confirmed the target to spend over 2% of their GNPs on national defense by the year 2024, while the US presidential candidate has a policy that ‘the US will not help (European nations), if they do not pay’.
World’s military spending has increased by 15%
The EU has compiled a ‘Strategy on European Defense Industries’ to enhance their own military sector by allocating a tremendous sum of money. According to the Military Balance 2024 issued by the US Research Institute on International Strategy, the world’s military expenditure of the year 2023 counts approximately 329 trillion yen, the largest in the history and with an increase by 9% compared with that of the previous year. The current figure, compared with the result of the year 2021, or before the military conflict in Ukraine, shows a surge by 15%.
The US is ready to enlarge production capacity of weapons in 2024, importing back from Japan interceptor Patriot missiles produced here to send them to Ukraine, though her armament production capabilities have been pressed due to the grant of arsenal to the European conflict zone.
Immediately after the Cold War the international community shared the agreed target of SDGs and many investments were thwarted from the military field and, thus, businesses were stagnant in this sector. But the trend has changed, shifting to a concept in which it is necessary to hinder the ‘change of status quo’ by military strength in order to bring forth the ‘sustainable’ world. Consequently, ‘merchants of death’ have arisen, coming out of the bottom. This fact actually disrupts ceasefire in the conflict in Ukraine and discourages cessation of genocide in Palestine.
Budget of 43 trillion yen must be withdrawn!
The government tries to join hastily the world’s club. Honorary Chairman of the Keidanren, or the Japan Business Federation, Sakakibara Sadayuki, told in the experts’ meeting of the Ministry of Defense held in February that reviewing ‘the military expenditure amounting 43 trillion yen’ should not be treated as taboo, questioning whether the sum is sufficient for reinforcement.
The said meeting was attended, too, by Chairman Miyanaga Shun’ichi of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. The company is planned to upsurge its business to a size of 1 trillion yen by the year 2027 in its total sales, or to double the today’s achievement, by exporting the next generation of fighter jets to third countries. The export of such aircraft is a focal point in the defense industry circle. The company involves in arms production, racing with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Today ‘merchants of deaths’ have become international. Japan is the primary nation to enclose China, engaged in the common operations together with the US and NATO. Development and specifications of weapons should essentially be identical among them.
It is crucial to conceal technical information in the joint development efforts with other countries, and its leaks to ‘adversaries’, like China, must be prevented. Employees of these companies must be under perpetual surveillance and control of personal activities. Weapons should be sold anywhere in the world and their lethal effects should be verified in the battlefields.
A bill on security clearance is raised to parliamentary debates. The Kishida government is to lastly approve the issue to ‘export next generation fighter jets’ only in the Cabinet. These attempts are united as a set to attain the goal of the administration. We cannot tolerate the belligerent forces and the ambitions and free stalking of ‘merchants of death’.
March 20, 2024