Japan Mulls Enemy Base Strike Option For Nat'l Defense

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seeking to boost its enemy base strike capability as a defense tactic even as critics say that option violates the country's pacifist constitution, Sommer Brokaw reported for United Press International (UPI).

Photo Insert: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks with military personnel.

Kishida told 800 military personnel during a troop review at Camp Asaka near Tokyo that the option for Self-Defense Forces to strike at hostile enemy bases would be considered when Japan revises its foreign and security policies, Kyodo News and national broadcaster NHK also reported.

The military review was scaled down for the second year due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no parade of tanks or other vehicles. Kishida said the enemy base strike capability was one option the government was considering to increase necessary defense capability.

Critics have said the enemy base strike capability violates Article 9 of the Japanese constitution that was imposed on Tokyo after the end of World War II, which renounces war to settle international disputes and prohibits maintaining an armed force except for defensive purposes.

Still, Kishida said enemy base strike capability would be considered to protect against North Korea's rapid development of missile technology and its continued firing of ballistic missiles in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, as well as against China's military expansion.

Japan "cannot overlook (North Korea's) recent development and improvement of new technologies such as hypersonic glide weapons and missiles with irregular orbits," the prime minister said. China continues to strengthen its military "without sufficient transparency" and is making "unilateral attempts to change the status quo," he added.

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