July 2, 2015
Would Japan see country A as “integral” to country B if country A’s military refueled country B’s fighters on standby to attack Japan? To this question, Foreign Minister Kishida Fumio could not come up with any reasonable answer, bringing Diet deliberations to a halt for a while.
This happened in a House of Representatives Committee meeting on July 1 when Japanese Communist Party representative Motomura Nobuko asked about the “security” legislation allowing Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to aerially refuel other countries’ fighter aircraft which are participating in combat operations.
Up until now, Japan has been holding off on having its SDF refuel other forces’ warplanes which are heading off for combat operations, by stating that “it is constitutionally sensitive”.
However, the security legislation, if enacted, will remove this restriction under the classification of “logistics support”. Under the new legislation, aerial refueling tanker aircraft stationed at the Air SDF Komaki Base in Aichi can conduct refueling missions for U.S. fighter jets in a state of readiness to make military sorties.
Motomura during the committee meeting argued that refueling other nations’ bombers ready to stage airstrikes has nothing to do with Japan’s defense and is inseparable from participation in hostilities. This is a clear violation of the Constitution, the JCP lawmaker stated.
So far, government ministers have explained that a refueling mission is “not engaging in combat” so it is “not an integral part of the use of force by other countries”.
Motomura asked the aforementioned question by using a hypothetical situation. Foreign Minister Kishida said that it would be “difficult” from an international viewpoint to not view a refueling mission as an integral part of combat operations, and that “it is unique to Japan” to claim that a refueling mission is not an integral component of combat operations.
This happened in a House of Representatives Committee meeting on July 1 when Japanese Communist Party representative Motomura Nobuko asked about the “security” legislation allowing Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to aerially refuel other countries’ fighter aircraft which are participating in combat operations.
Up until now, Japan has been holding off on having its SDF refuel other forces’ warplanes which are heading off for combat operations, by stating that “it is constitutionally sensitive”.
However, the security legislation, if enacted, will remove this restriction under the classification of “logistics support”. Under the new legislation, aerial refueling tanker aircraft stationed at the Air SDF Komaki Base in Aichi can conduct refueling missions for U.S. fighter jets in a state of readiness to make military sorties.
Motomura during the committee meeting argued that refueling other nations’ bombers ready to stage airstrikes has nothing to do with Japan’s defense and is inseparable from participation in hostilities. This is a clear violation of the Constitution, the JCP lawmaker stated.
So far, government ministers have explained that a refueling mission is “not engaging in combat” so it is “not an integral part of the use of force by other countries”.
Motomura asked the aforementioned question by using a hypothetical situation. Foreign Minister Kishida said that it would be “difficult” from an international viewpoint to not view a refueling mission as an integral part of combat operations, and that “it is unique to Japan” to claim that a refueling mission is not an integral component of combat operations.
