A n advisory panel to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has completed a report calling for a review of Japan's defense-only security policy. The report, by the Forum on Security and Defense Capability, says Japan should have a "multifunctional, flexible defense force" to meet security threats such as terrorism, missile attacks and organized crime. It also states that "international peace cooperation activities" by the Self-Defense Forces are their primary duty.
Based on this report, the government is to draw up, by the end of November, a new National Defense Program Outline setting guidelines for the next midterm defense-buildup plan. In formulating the new outline, however, the government must pay due respect to the pacifist principles of the Constitution, which renounces the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.
The report begins by stating, correctly, that security in the 21st century acquired a new dimension on Sept. 11, 2001, when attacks by "nonstate terrorists" on U.S. symbols of power debunked the traditional notion that threats to national security came only from states. In the post-9/11 world, the assumption is that states face serious threats from "nonstate entities" such as terrorist groups.