Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday Japan should find legal leeway to allow its armed forces to shoot down a ballistic missile fired at its key ally the United States.
Abe made the remarks before a panel of advisers which he set up in April to lay the legal groundwork for Japan to fight for allies under attack without breaching its post-World War II pacifist constitution.
The constitution bans the use of force in settling international disputes, a constraint interpreted by successive governments to mean that Japan can resort to force for its own defence but not for "collective defence" of allies. "If our ally, the United States, is seriously damaged by a ballistic missile, it will undoubtedly have a severe impact on our country's own defence," Abe told the advisers at the outset of a meeting.
"In this sense, this (missile defence) is an important issue from the viewpoint that the Japan-US alliance should function more effectively," he said. Japan and the United States have been building an armed shield against missile attacks since North Korea lobbed a suspected long-range missile over Japan's main island and into the Pacific in 1998. On Thursday, Prime Minister Abe called for a "severe" international response to North Korea's launch of several short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) a day earlier.
It was the third meeting of the 13-member panel of former officials and academics led by ex-ambassador to Washington Shunji Yanai. The members are widely seen as close to Abe who has also been seeking to revise the constitution itself as part of his drive to build an assertive nation proud of its history despite its militarist past.
The panel was tasked to draw up a report to Abe before the end of the year. "There was no objection to the idea that we should intercept (missiles)," Shinichi Kitaoka, a Tokyo University professor on the panel, told reporters after the meeting, according to Kyodo News.
Many panel members agreed that if Japan failed to intercept such missiles, despite having the capability to do so, it would undermine the foundation of the Japan-US security alliance, ex-ambassador Yanai said, according to Kyodo. Some members said that missile interceptions over international waters did not constitute an exercise of force in foreign territory, Yanai said, adding that North Korea was one area discussed. There were also suggestions that missiles targeted at Australia and other allies should also be intercepted, Yanai was quoted as saying.
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