Tokyo, Sept. 30 (Jiji Press)–The U.S. military is planning to bring a Typhon mobile intermediate-range missile launcher to its Kadena Air Base in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa as early as mid-October for storage there. The Japanese Defense Ministry is seeking understanding for the move, stressing that it will strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities of the Japan-U.S. alliance. However, local governments are calling for the withdrawal of the plan amid strong concerns that the missile system may be permanently deployed at the base, which straddles the city of Okinawa and the towns of Kadena and Chatan. At a press conference Tuesday, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said that storing a Typhon launcher at Kadena could “effectively demonstrate the mobile deployment capability of the U.S. military,” adding that strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance is “essential to protecting peaceful lives.” The U.S. Army’s Typhon system can fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of about 1,600 kilometers and can reach the Chinese mainland from Japan. A Typhon launcher was temporarily deployed at the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kanoya air base in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan, for a Japan-U.S.-Australia joint exercise held in September. It has been announced that the Typhon would be transferred from Kanoya to Kadena around mid-October. The U.S. side explained the storage does not mean that the Typhon would be permanently deployed in Japan, a Defense Ministry official said, adding that no Typhon operation unit will be deployed at Kadena Air Base and that no significant increase in U.S. military personnel is expected. Still, local communities are increasingly worried, especially because they have long borne the burden of hosting many U.S. military bases and suffered incidents and accidents involving U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa and noise from aircraft taking off from and landing at the bases. In addition, concerns remain that the base could become a target of enemy attacks in the event of a contingency. Kadena Mayor Hiroshi Toyama submitted a letter of protest to the Defense Ministry’s Okinawa Defense Bureau on Monday, in which he said storing a system that would impose a new burden is “outrageous and cannot be tolerated.” Noting that it is unclear how long the Typhon would be at the Kadena base, the letter said there is a strong possibility that the transfer could lead to a full-scale permanent deployment of the missile launcher. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
