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China-Japan-Koreas
Japan, slumbering military giant, stirs
2004-12-13
As expected, Japan's cabinet extended the deployment of up to 600 troops in Iraq for another year, though they are largely sequestered in their high-tech desert fortress. This move was billed as unflinching support for its ally the United States and a helping hand to war-torn Iraq. A new defense policy unfurled the following day, however, showed that after a half-century, Tokyo's military and global aspirations, like a once-slumbering giant, may just be starting to stir.

The cabinet, in endorsing the new five-year defense policy, also cracked the door open just a bit, lifting a decades-old arms-export ban, citing as justification an "immediate" need for a joint missile-defense system with the United States. Only certain exports to the US will be allowed - the general ban was not lifted. And for the first time, the defense-policy outline singled out other nations as security concerns - understandably North Korea, but also China.
Posted by:tipper

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