Tokyo, Nov. 3 (Jiji Press)–Former Japanese Self-Defense Forces leader Katsutoshi Kawano, one of the awardees of this year’s autumn honors in the country, has stressed the need for the SDF to gain trust from members of the public. “The SDF must acknowledge that obtaining people’s trust is important,” the 71-year-old former chief of staff of the SDF Joint Staff said in an interview. Kawano, who worked for the SDF for 42 years, has been named a recipient of the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure. In the interview, he also underscored the need to strengthen the SDF’s functions and revise the Constitution’s pacifist Article 9 at a time when the security environment surrounding Japan is increasingly severe. Kawano was born in 1954, when the SDF was established, in the northernmost Japan prefecture of Hokkaido, where his father, a member of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Navy, had been assigned. He joined the Maritime SDF after graduating from the National Defense Academy of Japan in 1977. After serving as SDF fleet commander and MSDF chief of staff, Kawano became the fifth chief of staff of the SDF Joint Staff in 2014. Winning deep trust from then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Kawano played a central role for the Abe administration’s security policy. In an unusual move, his retirement age was pushed back three times, and he served as chief of staff of the SDF Joint Staff for four and a half years, the longest tenure among all SDF leaders, until his retirement in 2019. Kawano cited the 1990 Gulf War as a major turning point for the SDF. Japan was criticized by the international community at the time for not sending personnel, such as SDF troops, for the war, despite its huge financial contributions. In 1991, after the end of the war, Japan dispatched a minesweeper to the Persian Gulf. This mission helped the SDF begin activities overseas in earnest. “The SDF, which had not been able to act, became able to act,” Kawano said. “As a result of performing its duties one by one, the SDF is increasingly winning trust from the public.” During his tenure as chief of staff of the SDF Joint Staff, Kawano dealt with issues related to North Korea with the greatest sense of tension. The reclusive country repeatedly launched ballistic missiles and made progress in its nuclear and missile development. It is now deepening its military ties with Russia, which continues its invasion of Ukraine. “The interest of the United States shifted to other regions (than East Asia), and North Korea was given time as a result,” Kawano recalled. “The military pressure from Japan and the United States must have been effective, and the situation could have developed differently if we had done one or two more things.” Another challenge is how the Japan-U.S. alliance should be. Referring to the Japan-U.S. security treaty, Kawano pointed to an asymmetric relationship in which the United States is obliged to defend Japan while Japan provides bases for the U.S. military. This is “unprecedented in the world,” he said. Amid China’s increasing military threats, Japan’s importance to the United States is also increasing, he noted. “If Japan and the United States promote mutual defense to a certain degree, the bilateral alliance may become more reliable.” The issue of the SDF and the Constitution’s Article 9 also needs to be addressed. “The SDF is the organization that most embodies the contradictions of the postwar regime,” Kawano said, underlining the need to revise the second paragraph of Article 9, which states that “land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
