Japanese Peacekeepers Arrive in South Sudan With New Mandate - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South Sudan Monday, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years. Dressed in green camouflage uniform, Squad leader Yoshino Tanaka stepped off the plane at the head of the Japanese group. He was greeted and shook hands with Japan's ambassador to South Sudan, Kiya Masahiko. The 350 Self-Defense Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, but did not have mandate to use force. The new troops will be tasked with engineering and construction in the capital, Juba. For the first time since the end of World War II, when Japan enacted a law enshrining pacifism in its military, these peacekeepers will have the ability to use force to protect civilians, U.N. staff and themselves. For Japan, the deployment shows the growing trust the public places in its Self-Defense Forces, Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations told the Associated Press. However she said that many "people are worried that this first case of the Self-Defense Force's greater powers could run into problems and be put into a bad situation in South Sudan." [/QUOTE] [url]http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/japanese-peacekeepers-arrive-south-sudan-mandate-43686630[/url]

Chinese are already doing something similar and are now worried about the fact that soldiers are coming back in caskets, as I saw in a previous thread. No doubt this will be the case with Japan public opinion will directly affect the outcome of this endeavour. (Even if they are a better equipped force). I hope it goes well for them really but this isn't what they are used to, this is [i]Africa[/i] after all. Whole different story in that continent.

Isn't this illegal under that agreement the japs and Americans did after wwii?

[QUOTE=Amakir;51405426]Isn't this illegal under that agreement the japs and Americans did after wwii?[/QUOTE] [quote]Others have questioned whether letting troops fire their weapons as part of peacekeeping operations runs afoul of Article 9 of Japan's constitution, which renounces war and the use of force to settle international disputes. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe defended the expanded peacekeeping role before an upper-house Diet committee Tuesday, noting that there is currently no state-like entity engaged in armed conflict in South Sudan. Japan's presence there rests on the maintenance of a ceasefire in the country. So long as the SDF is not in combat against a state or an organization of a similar scale, troops are safely within constitutional limits. Even an official ceasefire is unnecessary if no state-like actors are present.[/quote] [url="http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Japan-approves-expanded-role-for-SDF-peacekeepers"]Source[/url]

[QUOTE=Amakir;51405426]Isn't this illegal under that agreement the japs and Americans did after wwii?[/QUOTE] Regardless of legal context I don't think this goes against the general spirit of that agreement.

[QUOTE=joshthesmith;51405393]Chinese are already doing something similar and are now worried about the fact that soldiers are coming back in caskets, as I saw in a previous thread. No doubt this will be the case with Japan public opinion will directly affect the outcome of this endeavour. (Even if they are a better equipped force). I hope it goes well for them really but this isn't what they are used to, this is [i]Africa[/i] after all. Whole different story in that continent.[/QUOTE] China's one child policy means that with every dead soldier, some parents lose their only child, and a family bloodline ends. While Japan doesn't have such a policy, its low birthrate does put many single child families in the same boat. China's situation is much more artificial and the policy is already beginning to be repealed while Japan has a much more systematic problem on its hands. Wouldn't surprise me if Japan begins developing autonomous war systems in order to reduce its casualties in the long term.

[QUOTE=amos106;51405951]China's one child policy means that with every dead soldier, some parents lose their only child, and a family bloodline ends. While Japan doesn't have such a policy, its low birthrate does put many single child families in the same boat. China's situation is much more artificial and the policy is already beginning to be repealed while Japan has a much more systematic problem on its hands. Wouldn't surprise me if Japan begins developing autonomous war systems in order to reduce its casualties in the long term.[/QUOTE] That actually sounds like something Japan might do. Though I heard somewhere that there have been calls to prevent the creation of AIs built specifically for war, or something. That said, if Japan started pumping out fighting machines to supplement their defence force, I wouldn't object to it, whether they go with simple drones or robust droids. Also, is there any real point in keeping Japan from having a proper army anymore, or is it just the perpetuation of some dreadful outdated tradition at this point?

[QUOTE=Amakir;51405426]Isn't this illegal under that agreement the japs and Americans did after wwii?[/QUOTE] It's very unlikely that japan would be invaded again just to prevent them from doing this, after all there would be a public outcry.

[QUOTE=Amakir;51405426]Isn't this illegal under that agreement the japs and Americans did after wwii?[/QUOTE] Basically Abe and the LDP managed to get an approval from cabinet to "reinterpret" Article 9 to include "collective self-defense" in that, the JSDF could be used to defend allied nations as a [I]collective defense[/I] on the basis of self-defense of national interests abroad. Basically they twisted the meaning of what states "self defense" and extrapolated on it in order to meet their demands. The main issue is that Shinzo Abe wants to more or less remove this article from the constitution but faces widespread anger if he does push onwards with it. His party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, many of its' members in the lower house are also a part of the "Nippon Kaigi" which is a conservative-lead revisionist lobby group that aims to repeal and remove Article 9, in order to formally expand defense-related spending and formally organising the JSDF into actual armed forces that can be used in an military offensive deployment (rather than volunteer-based defense forces, as is current procedure.) Plus, for any constitutional amendment, they would need to achieve a 2/3rds majority in both houses for it to pass (so, 317 in the House of Representatives, and 122 in the House of Councillors). This may happen due to the fact that they do have more than the required minimum number of votes required for a constitutional amendment.