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Japan navy holds review amid questions over future

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-25 21:03

ABOARD THE JS KURAMA: Japan's navy held its triennial fleet review Sunday, its first major demonstration of power under the country's new government, which has vowed to cut back on some of its already limited activities overseas.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has taken a more pacifist stance on military issues than his conservative predecessors, and the military has come under scrutiny since his government took over last month after decades of rule by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

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The fleet review, with about 8,000 sailors, 36 warships and three submarines taking part, featured ship-to-sea missile launches, onboard helicopter landings, air-support operations and anti-submarine exercises.

The navy, formally called the Maritime Self-Defense Forces, is focused almost entirely on a defensive strategy along Japan's coasts, but its overseas role has grown in recent years.

It is participating in missions in the Indian Ocean in support of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan and off the coast of Somalia as part of an international anti-piracy mission.

Hatoyama, however, has said he will end the Indian Ocean mission in January.

"With the globalization of international society, the role of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces has become more diverse," Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in an address to officers and sailors aboard the JS Kurama, a destroyer that served as the flagship for the review. "I hope that the Self-Defense Forces will contribute to international peace and stability."

Japan's navy has since World War II worked in close collaboration with the US Seventh Fleet, which has its home port in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo.

Kan stressed that Japan seeks to build its relations with its neighbors, who suffered from Japan's militarist expansion before 1945 and have often expressed concerns about Japan's post-World War II military strength.

"Along with our alliance with the United States, we want to have close relations with China, South Korea and Russia," he said.