Foreign Correspondent: Aug 19

Tonight on Foreign Correspondent Matt Carney has secured carte blanche access to some of Japan’s most fearsome and sophisticated military installations.

Ever since it surrendered to the allies at the conclusion of WW2 Japan’s military effort has been homebound. The Japanese Self Defence Force has been precisely that – remaining vigilant to outside threats but constitutionally restrained from striking the first blow. Now, with an assertive China throwing its weight around in North Asia, there’s a developing inclination among Japan’s leadership to take its tactical lead from a another playbook: that the best form of defence is attack. Many in Japan – young and old – worry that’s leading their nation down a path to war.

Young Japanese fighter pilot Sho Yoshida drills to get himself and his F15 jet-fighter ready in 5 minutes. In the air from Okinawa, he can be over his neighbourhood’s biggest flashpoint in 20 minutes. Japan’s hold on the Senkaku islands is being disputed and occasionally challenged by China. Japan’s not going to give them up lying down.

In Tokyo Harbour, the destroyer Myoko is tied-up dockside. But even standing still it’s a lethal war machine. On board, the Combat Information Centre is a super-sophisticated response room – its super-computers can read threats and respond to scores of them within 500 kilometers, all at the same time. A barrage of nearly 100 missiles can be despatched within minutes.

At Japan’s elite military college enrolments are at record levels and a recruitment campaign pitching military service as cool is helping to attract large numbers of new recruits.

Legally, Japan’s military is strictly charged with defending the nation, not attacking others. Increasingly though that constitutional decree is being massaged and manipulated.

The government of Shinzo Abe is endeavouring to reinterpret the constitution and put Japan’s military on an offensive footing.

The moves are being propelled by what Japan’s leadership sees as pushy Chinese territorialism and a wildly unpredictable North Korea.

North-Asia Correspondent Matt Carney has secured carte blanche access to some of Japan’s most fearsome and sophisticated military installations at a key time for the nation. Militarism is on the march and extreme nationalism is coat-tailing it.

Overwhelmingly, though Japanese young and old are opposed to moves transforming their military into aggressors. Including some with long memories like Tadamasa Iwaii, a WW2 vet who became a pacifist.

Tuesday, 19 August at 8pm on ABC.