インド太平洋研究会　Indo-Pacific Studies

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No More Unilateral Alliances! Japan Navy Indo-Pacific Deployment IPD22

　　

From left to right, my mentor Professor Watanabe, Professor Hirama, who passed away in March 2020, and General Takashima, who treated me to udon noodles in Kagawa. There are many people who pushed me (and many who pulled my leg), but it was my encounters with these three people that moved the dispatch of the Japanese Navy to the Indo-Pacific forward. I will write about the US-Australia in another blog.

 

It was I who made the University of the South Pacific's USPNet a Japanese ODA project at the first Pacific Islands Summit in 1997. It was a one-operation deal, and Yohei Sasakawa never touched even one finger. With the cooperation of Professors Kosuge and Tanaka of the University of Electro-Communications, I alone convinced then PIF Secretary General Tabai and University of the South Pacific Vice-Chancellor Solofa to make this high-politics ICT policy. It was my judgment and action alone that made it a Japanese ODA project.

I feel embarrassed to write this, but I want to make it clear that the credit will not go to Yohei Sasakawa, who did nothing and knew nothing about the project, because it will lead to the tragedy in Myanmar and the construction of a criminal culture in Palau.

Such a big project should be done only once in one's life. However, the opportunity to move the Indo-Pacific security issue came around in 2008. This was also a one-operation project, and neither Yohei Sasakawa nor any of the foundation's staff were involved. I would like to make this clear in order to avoid a repeat of the Myanmar tragedy.

The Micronesian Maritime Security Project was launched by me with utilizing Yohei Sasakawa's greed for fame and the shipbuilding and amakudari interests of the MLIT and Nippon Foundation. But I had my own agenda. It was to reform the Japan-U.S. alliance and the security of the Asia-Pacific (now the Indo-Pacific), which had been cultivated under the guidance of my mentor, Professor Akio Watanabe (Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo), who wrote the Higuchi Report, Japan's national security policy since the end of the Cold War.

The Micronesian Maritime Security was launched with the reform of the unilateral alliance in my mind, in which the U.S. protects Japan but Japan does not protect the U.S. I am sorry, but I utilized the Japan Coast Guard as a stalking horse. The recognition that I am creating a path for the JMSDF ie Japanese Navy to one day emerge has been in my mind since 2008, and I have kept Professor Watanabe informed of the progress of the project and have always asked for his opinion. My encounters with Professor Yoichi Hirama (National Defense Academy) and General Hiromi Takashima were also significant. I had always asked myself, "Is it right to send the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to the Indo-Pacific? 

The JMSDF moved only after maritime security and the Indo-Pacific were on the agenda at the 8th Island Summit in 2018. This was also the result of my being invited as a lecturer and proposed to the Council of Islands and Maritime Affairs, which is chaired by MP Keiji Furuya. I am sincerely grateful to MP Furuya, MP Eto, and the other members of the Parliament who listened to my proposal. I am also grateful to Mr. Ezaki who gave me the opportunity to make this proposal.

The U.S. State Department, Indo-Pacific Command, and the Japan Ministry of Defense subsequently contacted me with requests for cooperation, and I provided Pacific island information.

Maritime security was also on the agenda at the 9th Island Summit in 2021, and the dispatch of the Maritime Self-Defense Force to the Indo-Pacific in 2021 was to visit Pacific island countries. I was consulted at this time as well. It was because of my involvement that even the President came out to welcome them at the Palau exercises. Don't laugh at my pride. This is the result of all the volunteer work that I have done sacrificing my life.

Following the reform of information and telecommunications in the Pacific, I have been able to move the maritime security of the Indo-Pacific. I have done so much in a woman's 60 years of life so now I have been quiet, but I have received social networking messages from the traditional chiefs of the Pacific Island that this will not be permitted.