S/P DIRECTOR KRASNER'S MAY 10 MEETING WITH JDA VM

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TOKYO 002640

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/14/2021
TAGS: MARR MOPS PREL JA
SUBJECT: S/P DIRECTOR KRASNER'S MAY 10 MEETING WITH JDA VM
MORIYA

REF: A. TOKOYO 2609

B. TOKYO 2610

C. TOKYO 2612

D. TOKYO 2637

E. TOKYO 2638

F. TOKYO 2639

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Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Joe Donovan reasons 1.4(b/d).


1. SUMMARY: (C) During their May 10 meeting, S/P Director
Krasner and Japan Defense Agency (JDA) Administrative Vice
Minister Moriya reviewed Japanese efforts to implement the
Security Consultative Committee agreement on alliance
transformation and the evolution of Japan's role in
international security and future relations with NATO.
Krasner observed that Japan faces many of the same external
threats and domestic constraints as other nations and asked
Moriya how Japan could play a larger role in meeting these
international security challenges. Moriya maintained that
Japan has already made great progress in adapting to the new
international security environment but said Japan's role can
continue to expand as long as there is domestic and
international support. END SUMMARY.

Implementing Alliance Transformation Agreements
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2. (C) During a May 10 meeting, Japan Defense Agency (JDA)
Administrative Vice Minister Takemasa Moriya told S/P
Director Stephen D. Krasner that he had been briefing
Japanese legislators on the recent agreement on alliance
transformation that obligates Tokyo to pay part of the cost
of moving 8,000 U.S. Marines and their dependents to Guam
from Okinawa. Given Japan's difficult fiscal environment,
both supporters and detractors of the agreement are keenly
interested in its details and the modalities for financing
Japan's share. Moriya said he explained to the Diet members
that Japan's regional security environment is characterized
by China's massive defense buildup and DPRK's nuclear weapons
program and missile proliferation. This environment makes
the U.S.-Japan alliance and presence of U.S. forces
necessary, although both sides recognize that some key
airfields and installations are now surrounded by urbanized
areas. The transformation agreement will allow the U.S. to
shift forces and operations away from population centers,
creating a more stable and sustainable alliance.


3. (C) In response to Krasner's query whether Japan will need
to increase future defense spending past the informal
one-percent-of-GNP ceiling, Moriya said he believes that
Japan will have to increase its defense budget in order to
implement its realignment commitments in a way that does not
severely restrict spending on the Self Defense Forces.
Moriya opined that JDA needed to make a study of future
defense costs within the next six months.

Becoming a Security Provider
--------------


4. (C) Krasner asked Moriya to consider how the tangible
international threats to Japan posed by terrorism,
proliferation and regional tensions can be reconciled with
Japan's domestic political constraints on JDA, the SDF, and
Japan's security posture. Will Japan be able to play the
larger and more active role in international security
required to meet global challenges, he asked. Moriya
asserted that, since the end of the Cold War, Japan had
quickly reacted to the evolving international environment.
Japan had enacted a series of laws that permitted the Self
Defense Forces to deploy overseas and to support U.S. forces

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involved in military operations in areas surrounding Japan.
He counted off legislative steps, cabinet decisions and
bilateral agreements in the area of international security.


5. (C) What kind of international role Japan will play in the
future will depend on the attitude of the Japanese people and
the stance of other countries in the region, Moriya
continued. Krasner pressed Moriya for specifics on how Japan
might do more in post-conflict situations in areas like Iraq
and Sierra Leone. Moriya said that Japan is cautious about
dispatching troops abroad, but that the 20 deployments made
in the last 15 years have all gone well. He cited polls
indicating wide public support for humanitarian deployments.


Japan-NATO
--------------


6. (C) Krasner asked how Japan views the possibility of
expanded relations with NATO. Moriya replied that Japan's
security relations had been focused almost exclusively on the
United States for more than 35 years. In the last decade,
however, Japan had begun to develop defense ties with other
countries. Japan now has framework agreements with 20 other
nations and ad hoc security relations with five or six more,
said Moriya. In a globalized environment characterized by
inexpensive air travel and worldwide communications networks,
Japan's security interests extend beyond Northeast Asia.
Moriya noted that his European counterparts hold very
different views on China and on the need for a EU arms
embargo on Beijing. If only to close this perception gap,
Japan needs to build links with NATO, he concluded.


7. (U) Participants in the meeting included:

United States
--------------

Stephen D. Krasner, Director, Policy Planning Staff
Joe Donovan, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy Tokyo
Evan Feigenbaum, S/P Member
Apar Sidhu, Political Officer, Embassy Tokyo (notetaker)
David Wolff, Political Officer, Embassy Tokyo

Japan
--------------

Takemasa Moriya, JDA Administrative Vice Minister
Kenjiro Monji, JDA Director General for Int'l Affairs
Hironori Kanazawa, JDA Deputy Director General


8. (U) S/P Director Krasner cleared this message.
DONOVAN