Gov’t to submit bills on defense cooperation with U.S

TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo

The government Friday expressed its intention to submit to the Diet within three months bills to legislate domestic laws governing the updated guidelines for defense cooperation with the United States, Foreign Ministry officials said.

During a series of talks in Tokyo of the bilateral Subcommittee for Defense Cooperation and the Security Subcommittee at the bureau deputy director general-level, Japan told the U.S. that it plans to refer the measures to the Diet during the ongoing 150-day ordinary parliamentary session which runs through June 10, the ministry officials said.

The bills being considered include one that would result in a law stipulating under what situations, in undefined “areas surrounding Japan,” the country will provide U.S. forces with logistic support, the officials quoted Japanese negotiators as saying.

The guidelines, updated in September, say Japan will provide logistic support to the U.S. in the event of an emergency in the region.

The law will also specify procedures under which Japan will provide the support.

The Japanese government also envisions submitting to parliament a bill to amend the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) law so that SDF vessels can legally carry Japanese evacuees and refugees in an emergency.

Due to a tight parliamentary schedule, it is uncertain whether the government can submit all of intended bills to the Diet before it wraps up June 10.

However, senior officials of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) said Friday the government is aiming at submission of the bills before the “Golden Week” holidays, which extend from April 29 to May 5.

LDP Secretary General Koichi Kato and LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Taku Yamasaki made the remarks in separate meetings with Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asian and Pacific affairs, who was in Japan to discuss security issues.

Yamasaki was quoted as saying three or four bills are likely to be submitted.

During Friday’s security talks, Japan and the U.S. also vowed to cooperate in updating the June 1996 Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) during the same time period, according to government officials.

The pact currently provides for mutual logistic support of supplies and services only in peacetime.

It therefore needs to be revised or replaced with a new treaty in order to have it apply in an emergency.

Japan also pledged that it will continue efforts to obtain understanding from local residents on the planned construction of a U.S. offshore military heliport in Okinawa Prefecture, the officials said.

The U.S. side agreed to continue supporting the Japanese central government’s stance to search for ways to build a sea-based heliport off the U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Schwab in the city of Nago in Japan’s southwestern island prefecture of Okinawa despite resistance from local residents.

The heliport construction has been proposed in order to relocate the helicopter operations of the Futemma Marine Corps Air Station, located in the city of Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture.

Washington agreed in December 1996 to close the Futemma base in five to seven years on condition that the helicopter operations be relocated to another site in the prefecture