JAPANESE MORNING PRESS HIGHLIGHTS 03/13/09

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TOKYO 000566

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA;
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION;
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE;
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN,
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR;
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA.

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA

SUBJECT: JAPANESE MORNING PRESS HIGHLIGHTS 03/13/09

Index:

(1) Anti-piracy legislation to be adopted at cabinet meeting today:
Guidelines for use of weapons to be eased; Concern about impact on
future dispatch of SDF troops (Nikkei)

(2) Somalia dispatch (Part 1): Uncertain Obama strategy (Tokyo
Shimbun)

(3) No abnormality found in water around Futenma Air Station after
jet fuel spills (Ryukyu Shimpo)

(4) Reasons for public prosecutors to investigate illegal political
donations by Nishimatsu Construction at this timing (Tokyo Shimbun)


ARTICLES:

(1) Anti-piracy legislation to be adopted at cabinet meeting today:
Guidelines for use of weapons to be eased; Concern about impact on
future dispatch of SDF troops

NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full)
March 13, 2009

The government will adopt at a cabinet meeting on March 13
anti-piracy legislation designed to counter piracy in waters off
Somalia. The legislation for the first time allows, though
conditionally, the Self-Defense Forces to fire on pirate ships
before they launch an attack. The policy is based on the notion that
anti-piracy operations are police activities differing from the use
of weapons overseas that is prohibited under Article 9 of the
Constitution. However, there is concern that such a notion could
have an impact on the guidelines for the future use of weapons by
SDF personnel abroad.

Article 9 and use of weapons

The guidelines for the use of weapons by SDF personnel dispatched
abroad have been gradually eased. However, they are limitedly
allowed to use weapons only for self-defense or emergency evacuation
when attacked. Article 9 of the Constitution bans the use of weapons
overseas as a means of settling international disputes.

Anti-piracy operations are police activities

The legislation approves SDF personnel firing on pirate vessels,
even if they do not make an attack, provided that they do not stop
closing in on commercial ships despite warning shots. The provision
adopted this time, which is clearly different from self-defense, is
characterized as the use of weapons to carry out missions. Though
such an action is approved by other countries' militaries, the SDF
is not allowed to do so under Japan's exclusively defense-oriented
policy.

Positioning anti-piracy operations in question as police activities,
the government defines pirate ships as vessels excluding military
ships and ships owned or operated by foreign governments. The
government has explained that fighting a state or a state-like
entity could fall under the use of armed force. However, the
government clearly differentiates the use of weapons from the use of
armed force by adopting such a definition.

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Possible to deal with approaching helicopters

The government during deliberations on the legislation by the ruling
parties indicated this interpretation of the law: "The SDF may fire
on a helicopter that took off from a pirate ship and refused to stop
approaching. However, the SDF is not allowed do fire on a helicopter
that came flying from the shore. This is a view that though a
helicopter is not a pirate vessel, if it took off from a pirate
ship, its approaching flight can be interpreted as an extended act
of piracy.

It is only natural to anticipate every possible situation for SDF
activities overseas. However, some government and ruling party
officials are concerned that the Liberal Democratic Party's defense
policy clique and the Defense Ministry might be trying to set a
precedent for easing the guidelines for the use of weapons in order
to broaden the scope of SDF activities overseas."

(2) Somalia dispatch (Part 1): Uncertain Obama strategy

TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 1) (Abridged slightly)
March 12, 2009

The Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) is going to dispatch two
destroyers on an anti-piracy mission in waters off Somalia. The MSDF
was reluctant to do so until last December. Around that time, the
Defense Ministry announced an organizational reform plan, following
a series of irregularities, including the Aegis-equipped destroyer
Atago's collision with a fishing boat. Some MSDF members complained
about the mission, insisting that that is what the Japan Coast Guard
should do.

The situation changed when the United States on Dec. 16 drafted UN
Resolution 1851 authorizing operations to crack down on pirates in
Somalia. The United States had been keeping a distance from Somalia
since 18 American soldiers were killed there in 1993. Senior MSDF
officers recognized a change in the United States.

"If the United States plans operations in Somalia, we should of
course cooperate." The MSDF, which contained the Soviet Navy in
collaboration with the U.S. Navy during the Cold War era, takes
strong pride in propping up the Japan-U.S. alliance.

Hoisting a Rising Sun flag in waters off Somalia carries great
significance for Japan, which has supported the United States in the
Afghan War and Iraq War, using the SDF.

With the MSDF destroyers being sent out soon, a different view
emerged in the MSDF. Some specifically speculated that the United
States might decide to use "smart power," a concept advocated by
President Barack Obama, in addressing the Somalia issue. Smart power
is a notion combining military, economic and cultural power to aim
at international cooperation by breaking away from the Bush
administration's unilateralism.

As if he was convinced that Obama would become the new president,
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the National Defense
Strategy last July. The strategy underlined the need for the
military and civilian sectors to jointly address tough issues based
on lessons learned in Iraq where America's strategy solely dependent
on military power failed.

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As a result, the U.S. Africa Command, the sixth of its kind, was
launched in November. A female official from the State Department
serves as its deputy commander for civil-military activities, and
civilians account for one-fourth of the command. The idea is if
civil order in Africa is improved with a variety of aids, that would
contribute to the security of the United States.

Meanwhile in Japan, the ruling parties' anti-piracy project team
visited in February Africa's Djibouti, where the MSDF will be based.
Meeting with the project team, the U.S. commanding officer in
Djibouti sought the dispatch of P-3Cs immediately after offering
words of welcome, saying, "We will gladly provide you with our
base."

Germany, France, and Spain have each dispatched one patrol plane to
Djibouti and the U.S. Navy three. Shifting naval patrol aircraft for
surveillance over Afghanistan, the U.S. military said that it was in
short of "eyes" to spot pirate ships.

Tokyo has begun negotiations with the Djibouti government for
stationing an MSDF P-3C unit in the country. The government is
planning to dispatch two to three P-3Cs. If the plan is realized,
Japan would deploy three destroyers, including one on a refueling
mission, a fueler, and a patrol unit in waters off Africa and the
Middle East.

As is clear from its plan to send reinforcements to Afghanistan, the
Obama administration has not ruled out the use of military power. At
a time when the Somalia issue can hardly make a soft landing and the
United States is trying to rely on its military power, the MSDF will
be literally standing nearby.

(3) No abnormality found in water around Futenma Air Station after
jet fuel spills

RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 30) (Full)
March 13, 2009

Jet fuel has recently leaked from a fuel storage tank in a northern
area of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station. The Environment
Preservation Division of the Okinawa prefectural government on March
12 released the results of water analysis conducted by the Okinawa
Prefecture Institute of Public Health and Environment Science.
According to the report, no benzene or toluene, which could be
contained in the fuel, was detected in nearby drainages or spring
water.

(4) Reasons for public prosecutors to investigate illegal political
donations by Nishimatsu Construction at this timing

TOKYO SHIMBUN (Page 24) (Excerpts)
March 10, 2009

Public prosecutors have launched an investigation into Nishimatsu
Construction Co.'s donations made to Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)
President Ozawa's political organization. Many observers say that it
is unusual for the prosecutors to launch such an investigation with
the next general election close at hand. Responses this newspapers
received from readers are also unusual. Many readers are critical of
the prosecutors, instead of questioning Ozawa's responsibility. The
Tokyo Shimbun has delved into their question "Why now?"

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There has been a rumor going around among people right after the
arrest of Ozawa's secretary that public prosecutors think that they
are some kind of young officers or that top-ranking officials have
become unable to control them.

However, Professor Nobuo Gohara at the Toin Yokohama University
graduate school said, "I do not feel that they chose the timing for
political purposes." He served as an assistant public prosecutor at
the Nagasaki District Public Prosecutors Office from 2002 through

2003. He led investigation into an illegal donation scandal
involving the Liberal Democratic Party's Nagasaki chapter.

He noted, "Is this such a major scandal even for the arrest of a
state-funded secretary to a person who is regarded as a candidate to
become the next prime minister? They called for some backups from
other public prosecutors' offices late last year. To begin with, it
is hard to think that they also had the Liberal Democratic Party in
mind."

Given the charge that led to the arrest of the secretary, it is a
crime concerning outside money entered into the political
organization's fund report. The amount involved is just 21 million
yen, less than 50 PERCENT of the average amount involved in this
kind of scandals in the past.

"Normally, arresting someone on such a charge requires a sizable
amount of money that cannot be pardoned with the correction of the
fund report, and they must also discover something unscrupulous in
that person's way of raising donations. However, there are no such
elements in the incident this time," said Gohara.

Journalist Osamu Aoki said: "It is a problem that the arrest was
made on the day before the revote on the budget bill. However, you
never know when a general election will be held. Some charges are
about to run out of the statute of limitations. Public prosecutors'
logic is barely justifiable."

A number of key LDP officers not indicted

Aoki, however, sarcastically said, "Public prosecutors have thus far
intentionally avoided investigations into key government officials."
Among recent cases, though late former Prime Minister Ryutaro
Hashimoto was not indicted over an illegal 100 million yen donation
made by the Japan Dentists Federation, former Chief Cabinet
Secretary Kanezo Muraoka was indicted. He said, "Their
investigations markedly lacked balance. It is hard to say that top
prosecutors had no political intention."

Nippon University Professor Yasunobu Iwai, political scientist,
said, "There was presumably a sense of distrust in Mr. Ozawa, such
as whether it is all right to have Mr. Ozawa as prime minister."

Even so, he is skeptical about a view that the arrest was made with
the upcoming general election in mind. He speculated, "Public
prosecutors wanted to avoid being criticized as interfering in the
election."

The Public Offices Election Law prohibits those who plan to run in
the election from putting up campaign posters for six months before
the Lower House members' term ends and up until the election is
officially announced. The Lower House's current membership is to end

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on Sept. 10. That is to say, a period after March 10 is regarded as
right before the election.

Iwai conjectures that public prosecutors might have thought that
they could avoid coming under fire for interfering in the election,
if the arrest (of the secretary) is before that.

The scandal was triggered by the incident of Nishimatsu Construction
Co. violating the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, brought to
light last year. A watcher of the prosecutors said the arrest took
place at this timing, because the prosecutors had too much pride to
close the scandal just as a case of violation of the Foreign
Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, and this coincided with a timetable
for personnel changes for bureaucrats in April and the suicide of a
secretary to a former Lower House member, whom they were
questioning.

ZUMWALT