The Japanese Defense Agency was formally upgraded to a full
ministry on Tuesday morning with a ceremony attended by Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and new Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma.
The name signs at the main gate of the Defense Agency
headquarters in central Tokyo were replaced shortly before the
ceremony with new name board written by Kyuma.
The bill raised by the Japanese government to upgrade the
Defense Agency into a ministry cleared the Lower House plenary
session in late November and passed the Upper House in
mid-December.
Under the legislation, the newly-launched defense ministry will
be headed by a "minister," instead of a director general whose post
is held by a state minister. Peacekeeping, disaster relief and
other international cooperation operations will be upgraded into
the Self-Defense Forces' essential duties from their current
subordinate positions.
Upgraded power of the administrative chief will include calling
for a Cabinet meeting and requesting budgets directly to the
Finance Ministry.
Functions of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, which
will be scrapped in fiscal 2007 starting next March, will be
integrated into the upcoming "Defense Ministry."
Japanese government senior officials said it is necessary for
the Defense Agency to be upgraded into a ministry in order to befit
the role of defending the country and contributing to world peace
in this new era.
However, some critics said the upgrade may imply a change of the
defense-only policy to a more internationally-active one.
The Defense Agency was established in 1954 and has been
restricted within Japan's war-renouncing pacifist Constitution. Its
main tasks have been defense of the nation and disaster relief at
home. As an affiliate of the Cabinet Office, the agency was under
the direct control of the prime minister.
Japanese analysts said that the voice for upgrading the Defense
Agency has never calmed down ever since its establishment, but the
idea hasn't been brought into reality for so long because Japan's
militaristic history which led the country itself into being
devastated haunted among the public.
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2007)
