Can Japan be called a Sovereign Country?

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Can Japan be called a Sovereign Country?
By: Kenichi Onishi
The UMJ Volume 2.3 (Opinion)

This year is the 50 th year since Japan's Constitution came into effect, and also the 45 th year since the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was effectuated.

The characteristic of the present situation in relation to the Constitution is that it is becoming obvious to all the people that the contradictions between the Constitution and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty along with the policy of the "Japan-U.S. Declaration on Security" have reached their limit and it has become obvious to all the people that they are no longer compatible. The main focal point of these contradictions concerns Article 9 of the Constitution and its peace principles. However, the question is not limited to this. The Security Treaty's infringement of the Constitution covers all aspects of the Constitution's principles. In Japan's post-war history the contradictions between the Constitution and the Security Treaty have been a constant question, but now the question is at a stage which is more serious than it has ever been.

Recently the Special Arrangement Act for the compulsory use of land for U.S. forces was adversely forcibly revised and the Japan-U.S. summit talks took place, in which the revised Special Arrangement Act was presented as a gift from Japan. Looking at this process, I wondered, "Is Japan a sovereign state?"

Mr. Bill Totten, U.S. entrepreneur living in Japan, wrote a critical article, entitled "Is Japan a U.S. colony?" in the monthly Can Japan be called a Sovereign Country? "Bungeishunju" May 1997 issue. He says, "I can't help thinking that the Prime Minister's action in relation to this question (the Special Arrangement Act) is not an action taken by the prime minister of a sovereign state but that of a proconsul of the far provinces" and "I think what is important now is that the Japanese people, not only the Okinawan people take nationwide action themselves to spread the voice for decolonialization."

I was sometimes asked by friends, "Why is the Japanese government so obedient to the U.S?" The important thing to see is that among developed countries Japan has an extraordinary position because the U.S. controls important parts of Japan's territory and its military affairs. No other country in the world has such a vast area of U.S. military bases in its capital city area and has U.S. Marines and an aircraft-carrier mobile group stationed in its country. For example, Yokota Base is a vast U.S. military base located in Tokyo, the capital of Japan. It totals 7,136,000 square meters. Many people will wonder how the U.S., which is in the midst of a fiscal crisis, can keep a military base in Japan, which is infamous for its high land prices, and in particular in the capital of Tokyo where land prices are at their highest levels. Judging from the price of land adjacent to Yokota Base, the land which it sits on is estimated to be worth at least 1.5 trillion yen. If the land were rented on a commercial basis, it would fetch a monthly fee of between 30 and 40 billion yen. What on earth is the secret of the U.S. being able to maintain a military base where the land price is so extraordinarily high? It's the fact that Yokota Base and other U.S. military bases all over Japan are offered free of charge by the Japanese government to the U.S. forces. And "free of charge" doesn't mean the land only. During the period from 1979 to 1994, at the request of the U.S. administration, the Japanese government provided additional facilities such as barracks, anti-nuclear bomb shelters for U.S. military aircraft, hospitals and schools, the value of which amounted to over 1.5 trillion yen.

Let me give you some information on U.S. bases in Japan. U.S. bases in Japan number 94, when only those bases for U.S. use are counted, and their aggregate size is over 316 square kilometers. Besides these, there are 42 bases of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces which are designated for common use with the U.S. forces as needed. This means that a total of 136 bases are available for the U.S. forces in Japan. The bases for the U.S. use have somewhat decreased, but common use bases have substantially increased so that the aggregate size is 1.9 times greater than that of 20 years ago.

The U.S. Department of Defense's East Asia Strategy Report, published in February 1995, regards Japan as supplying "by far the most generous host nation support of any of our allies." As U.S. administration officials point out, "it is actually less expensive to the American taxpayer to maintain our forces forward deployed than in the United States."

Can you imagine that a normal, independent country should have to bear so many bases in its land and burden for a half century? I think that the U.S. military bases must be completely withdrawn and the Japanese government must end its practice of shouldering the costs for the U.S. administration, which is at the expense of the living conditions, welfare and education of the taxpayers in Japan. I believe it will contribute to peace in Asia and the improvement of life in Japan.