Opinion Japanese Navy

The occasion was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. On Sunday,Japan organised a naval parade showing off 45 ships and nearly 8,000 sailors. Japan holds a fleet review every three years,but this one has been specially large and comes at a time when Tokyo’s maritime territorial and other disputes with Beijing in their shared waters have acquired a sharp edge.

Three countries — the US,Australia and Singapore — sent ships to participate in the fleet review. Twenty other countries,including China,sent their diplomats to observe the fleet review.

One of the well trained and best equipped forces in the region,the Japanese navy has traditionally been focused on dealing with the threat from the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Cold War,the Japanese navy has begun to undertake responsibilities for such cooperative security activity as humanitarian and disaster relief.

In recent years,the Japanese navy has also begun to participate in the anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean. With the dramatic rise in the capabilities of the Chinese navy,Japan now has huge maritime challenges closer home to deal with.

Noda surprise

Speaking at the fleet review,Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda talked about the navy’s “new responsibilities”. He directly referred to the threats from North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.

More significant was his veiled reference to the Chinese naval threat. While he did not mention Beijing directly,Noda left no one in any doubt when he pointed to a more difficult “security environment surrounding our nation”. Speaking from the deck of a destroyer,Noda said,“We are facing various cases related to territory and sovereignty.”

Noda,widely perceived as a weak leader,used the occasion to signal commitment to the defence of Japan’s maritime territorial interests. His use of some old-fashioned phrases in the speech surprised many observers of Japanese politics.

Noda called on the troops to put in “more strenuous efforts and hard work”. It would seem a rather simple thing for any political leader to say.

But not in Japan.

The expression is part of a slogan used by Admiral Heihachiro Togo,a commander of the Japanese Imperial Navy who was called “Nelson of the East”,during the victorious war against Russia in 1904-05.

Since the end of World War II,any reference to past Japanese military glory has been a major political taboo. Noda also read out the “Five Mottos” long recited by Japanese naval cadets. They call for sincerity,discipline and hard work.

Analysts in Tokyo say this is the first time a Japanese PM read the Five Mottos in front of the troops and call it “extraordinary”. Although Noda’s office has downplayed the remarks,there is no denying the subtle but definitive invocation to Japanese nationalism in coping with the military consequences of China’s rise.

Southern Islands

Besides defending its claims to island territories that are also claimed by China,the Japanese navy is under pressure to secure the waters around its southern islands that separate the East China Sea from the wider Pacific Ocean.

The PLA navy has long felt hemmed in by the naval might of the US and Japan. With greater self-confidence now,China’s naval leaders have undertaken bolder exercises that demonstrate the capacity to break out of the Japanese island chain into the Pacific. A flotilla of seven Chinese warships have sailed through one of the passages of Japan’s southern island chain for the first time. Japanese officials know that this will not be the last time.

Those in New Delhi who worry about China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean should recognise that the mounting naval tensions between Beijing and Tokyo in the Pacific are likely to be a much bigger factor in shaping the maritime future of the Indo-Pacific.

The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation,Delhi and contributing editor,‘The Indian Express’