VZCZCXRO9382
PP RUEHFK RUEHKSO RUEHNAG RUEHNH
DE RUEHKO #1059/01 1280729
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 080729Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY TOKYO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2808
INFO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAWJA/USDOJ WASHDC PRIORITY
RULSDMK/USDOT WASHDC PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC//J5//
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RHHMHBA/COMPACFLT PEARL HARBOR HI
RHMFIUU/HQ PACAF HICKAM AFB HI//CC/PA//
RHMFIUU/USFJ //J5/JO21//
RUYNAAC/COMNAVFORJAPAN YOKOSUKA JA
RUAYJAA/CTF 72
RUEHNH/AMCONSUL NAHA 6204
RUEHFK/AMCONSUL FUKUOKA 3871
RUEHOK/AMCONSUL OSAKA KOBE 7673
RUEHNAG/AMCONSUL NAGOYA 1518
RUEHKSO/AMCONSUL SAPPORO 4407
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 9154
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 5171
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 4948

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 TOKYO 001059 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA; 
WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION; 
TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; 
SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, 
DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA 
FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR; 
CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA
 
SUBJECT:  DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 05/08/09 
 
INDEX: 
 
(1) Use of weapons in patrolling airspace (Sankei) 
 
(2) Osprey deployment to Futenma set for fall 2012 (Ryukyu Shimpo) 
 
(3) Hiroyuki Noguchi's National Security Reader: The charge of 
"guilt by association" should be applied to North Korea, Iran 
(Sankei) 
 
(4) DPJ members become increasingly doubtful and suspicious about 
President Ozawa (Asahi) 
 
(5) TOP HEADLINES 
 
(6) EDITORIALS 
 
(7) Prime Minister's schedule, May 5 (Nikkei) 
 
ARTICLES: 
 
(1) Use of weapons in patrolling airspace 
 
SANKEI (Page 1) (Abridged sligtly) 
May 6, 2009 
 
This newspaper learned on May 5 that a plan to revise the way to 
patrol Japan's airspace by amending the Self-Defense Forces Law has 
surfaced in the run-up to a year-end revision of the National 
Defense Program Guidelines. According to the proposal, the 
government will consider enabling the SDF to use weapons to carry 
out such a duty, because if their use of weapons remain limited to 
self-defense and emergency evacuation purposes, it is difficult for 
them to effectively pursue such a duty. Chances are high that the 
amended law will include measures to deal with a hijacked passenger 
plane, similar to the case of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. 
 
The National Defense Program Guidelines are the basic guidelines for 
security policy set by the government. The Aso cabinet in January 
this year set up an experts panel tasked with revising the 
guidelines. It aims to complete the revision by year's end. 
 
Concerning the patrolling of the territorial airspace by the SDF, 
Article 84 of the SDF Law has a regulation on intrusion into 
territorial airspace. In the event that foreign aircraft violates 
Japan's airspace (20 nautical miles from Japan's coastal line) 
against international law and Japan's domestic law, the defense 
minister is empowered to order an SDF unit to apply enforcement 
measures, including giving orders for the aircraft to land or vacate 
the country's air space. 
 
However, the use of weapons is limited to self-defense and emergency 
evacuation purposes. If the plane is just continuing a provocative 
flight without indicating any intention to attack, it is difficult 
for the SDF to use weapons to forcibly vacate it, according to a 
senior officer of the Air Self-Defense Force. 
 
When North Korea launched a missile on April 5, Russia dispatched 
surveillance aircraft to take a scout around of the operation of the 
missile defense system of Japan's Aegis vessels. Since the Russian 
plane entered the Air Defense Identification Zone, which requires 
the submission of a flight plan, Japan scrambled a fighter jet. 
 
TOKYO 00001059  002 OF 006 
 
 
However, it was unable to take a measure to vacate it, a measure 
allowed to take against a plane that violated the airspace. For that 
reason, some government officials take the stance that it is 
imperative to grant the ASDF full authority to deal with such a 
situation even within the Air Defense Identification Zone. 
 
The government is also hypothesizing an attack by a hijacked 
passenger plane as in the case of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. 
Since it takes time to deal with such a situation with a public 
security operation, a plan to cope with such in the patrolling of 
territorial airspace has surfaced, targeting not only foreign 
aircraft but also domestic aircraft. 
 
(2) Osprey deployment to Futenma set for fall 2012 
 
RYUKYU SHIMPO (Page 1) (Abridged) 
May 8, 2009 
 
The U.S. Marine Corps' (USMC) Futenma Air Station will be home to 
the MV-22 Osprey, a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft 
serving as the follow-on mainstay transport, according to the U.S. 
Marine Corps' FY2009 aircraft deployment plan. Ospreys will be 
deployed to Futenma in October 2012. Meanwhile, the USMC aircraft 
deployment plan also says the USMC will replace its FA-18 fighter 
attackers, currently assigned to its Iwakuni base in Yamaguchi 
Prefecture, with 16 F-35B joint strike fighter jets in October 2016 
or afterward. The F-35B is a next generation fighter plane and also 
a VTOL aircraft. If the F-35Bs also come to Okinawa on their flight 
missions, concerns about noise are likely to escalate further. 
 
The previous plan had also indicated that the deployment of MV-22 
Ospreys to Futenma would start in 2012. The Japanese government 
reiterated that it was not informed of any specific deployment plan. 
However, the FY2009 plan shows that the deployment of Ospreys to 
Futenma has already been set. 
 
The F-35 was co-developed by the United States and Britain and is 
called a fifth generation fighter, which is a stealth aircraft like 
the F-22 that is barely detectable to radar. There are three types 
of F-35. Type A is for the Air Force, Type B is for the Marine 
Corps, and Type C is carrier-borne for the Navy. Type B is a VTOL 
aircraft with a complicated structured that has ordinary engines 
plus a built-in uplifting fan in its midsection. 
 
The deployment of MV-22 Ospreys to Futenma is to be completed by 
June 2013. The Futenma airfield is currently home to two heliborne 
squadrons with a total of 24 CH-46 mid-sized helicopters. The MV-22s 
will replace these Futenma-based CH-46 choppers. 
 
(3) Hiroyuki Noguchi's National Security Reader: The charge of 
"guilt by association" should be applied to North Korea, Iran, 
 
SANKEI (Page 5) (Excerpts) 
May 8, 2009 
 
America and European countries strongly proclaimed their opposition 
to Iran's developing and testing nuclear weapons and missiles, but 
for North Korea, there was only criticism to a level that Japan 
would accept it. Their level of sincerity is suspect. Certainly, 
Iran's missiles are aimed at the countries of NATO, of which the 
United States is a member, and at Israel, while the DPRK's missiles 
can reach Japan but not the U.S. However, on the point of the 
 
TOKYO 00001059  003 OF 006 
 
 
proliferation of nuclear weapons and the development of missile 
technology to transport such weapons, both countries are equally 
guilty. 
 
To begin with, the situation is that every time there is a nuclear 
and missile technology exchange between North Korea and Iran, the 
level of completion rises. Europe and the U.S. have expectations of 
North Korea being a state rich in mineral resources, but they do not 
strongly recognize it as a common enemy of the West. Japan, too, has 
a strong tendency to see Iran as an important supplier of energy 
resources. It lacks a sense of Iran being an enemy. As long as this 
perception gap is not filled, Japan will only become more isolated 
on North Korean issues. 
 
Differences toward UNSC responses 
 
In talks on Iran centered on the five permanent members of the 
United Nations Security Council - the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, 
and France - and Germany, sanctions resolutions against that 
country, such as freezing its foreign assets, have been adopted by 
the UNSC five times since 2006. The European Union (EU) also in 
recent years has repeatedly added its own sanctions, such as 
freezing the assets in the region of Iran's national bank and 
thoroughly inspecting cargo. For the U.S., as well, from the 1980s, 
sanctions that prohibited trade and new investment by U.S. companies 
have continued and been extended. 
 
In comparison, there have been only two UNSC economic and financial 
sanctions on North Korea since 2006. Upon adopting the sanctions, 
major countries outside of Japan have yet to effectively implement 
the sanction measures. And that is not all, the U.S. in 2007 removed 
a freeze on North Korea's assets in a Macao bank, and in 2008, 
ignoring Japan's objections, removed North Korea from its list of 
states sponsoring terrorism. Japan's own economic sanctions that 
used the special law banning port entry and the foreign exchange law 
became the remaining few protest measures. 
 
Range includes American mainland 
 
However, the improved version of the Taepodong-2 has an extended 
flight range and could reach Hawaii or Alaska in the U.S. The U.S. 
does not consider that the technology is there yet to reach the 
target, for example, the islands of Hawaii. Even if launched toward 
Alaska, there is a danger that the missile would pass over China and 
Russia, so a decision is hard to make. 
 
Yet, the U.S. is far from the situation of feeling a deepening sense 
of alarm toward North Korea. Some of the data of the improved type 
Taepodong-2 has been certainly passed along to Iran. Based on that 
data, it is now Iran's turn to improve its missiles. The intended 
target of the catch-ball going on between North Korea and Iran's 
technology transfer is of course Israel. Europe and America are also 
within range. 
 
In particular, if North Korea is able to only maintain its flight 
range, the target would be somewhere in the heartland of the North 
American continent. Only at that time would the U.S. raise the North 
Korea problem to a higher level of importance than Iran and 
Afghanistan. 
 
In order to raise the U.S.' level of crisis consciousness toward 
North Korea, Japan needs to work on NATO and the UN to pass 
 
TOKYO 00001059  004 OF 006 
 
 
resolutions against North Korea and Iran. This is the opportunity to 
crack down on the secret trade and proliferation being carried out 
by these two countries in connection with nuclear and missile 
technologies. These members of the "axis of evil" should be 
countered as being "guilty by association." 
 
(4) DPJ members become increasingly doubtful and suspicious about 
President Ozawa 
 
ASAHI (Page 4) (Excerpts) 
May 8, 2009 
 
Lawmakers in the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) are 
doubtful and suspicious about DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa's course of 
action. It was believed that Ozawa would make a decision on whether 
he would remain in his post or step down after the Golden Week 
holidays in early May. However, Ozawa went missing during the 
holiday period and failed to attend any meetings. Senior party 
members found themselves in the difficult situation of dealing with 
rumors. Given that, the DPJ is in a gloomy mood as it is unable to 
escape from the quagmire. 
 
Ozawa met yesterday evening with New Party Daichi representative 
Muneo Suzuki at his private office in Tokyo. Suzuki, who strongly 
supports Ozawa's decision to remain in his post, reportedly advised 
Ozawa about the political funds problem. 
 
However, a series of events caused party members to wonder if 
Ozawa's past illness called 'going missing' had resurfaced. 
 
The DPJ set up a panel of experts following the donation scandal 
involving Ozawa's secretary. The panel suddenly cancelled the 
planned hearing by Ozawa and Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama. The 
panel said that it had cancelled the hearing due to "inappropriate 
media reports." With this, the largest opposition party will 
inevitably be thrown into a state of turmoil. Another chance for 
Ozawa to establish accountability has been put off. 
 
Hatoyama and his followers held a meeting on the night of May 6 in 
Karuizawa Town, Nagano Prefecture. The group gave consideration to 
Ozawa's schedule in planning the meeting in order to strengthen 
unity with DPJ Upper House Caucus Chairman Azuma Koshiishi and 
lawmakers that support Ozawa. However, Ozawa did not attend the 
gathering. An Upper House member said angrily: "Why doesn't 
President Ozawa come? He should be replaced." Another participant 
said that Hatoyama and Kan should ask Ozawa to quit his post. 
Hatoyama, who appears to have lost face, told participants: 
 
"I don't really know the reason for (his absence), but I believe he 
might have refrained from attending in consideration of the 
situation (that all eyes are focused on his course of action)." 
 
(5) TOP HEADLINES 
 
Asahi: 
Poll: Welfare caseworkers in shortfall in 67 out of 73 cities and 
wards as benefit applications increase sharply 
 
Mainichi: 
Japan's public, private sectors thwart Russian enterprise's plan to 
buy Japanese maker with nuclear reactor production technology 
 
 
TOKYO 00001059  005 OF 006 
 
 
Yomiuri: 
Traffic jams on expressways double during Golden Week due to 1,000 
yen toll system 
 
Nikkei: 
Panasonic, Sumitomo Chemical to co-develop large OEL panels 
 
Sankei: 
GM shows deficit of 600 billion yen in January-March period 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
2.85 trillion yen to be allocated to corporations that accept 
retired bureaucrats 
 
Akahata: 
Nonproliferation talks achieve breakthrough 
 
(6) EDITORIALS 
 
Asahi: 
(1) Diet debate: Attention fixed on party-heads debate 
(2) Reorganization of banks and securities houses should be done for 
sake of customers 
 
Mainichi: 
(1) Nursing care: Listen to the voices of nurses 
(2) Bill to relieve sufferers of Minamata mercury poisoning: Don't 
draw the curtain before shedding light on the issue 
 
Yomiuri: 
(1) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant: Take adequate measures for the 
restart 
(2) Japan-U.S. defense cooperation: Deepen strategic dialogue to 
strengthen the alliance 
 
Nikkei: 
(1) European Central Bank must take quick action for financial 
stabilization 
(2) Restarting operation of Niigata reactor is a first steady step 
for the restoration of nuclear plants 
 
Sankei: 
(1) Mid-term goal for greenhouse gas emissions: Set a realistic 
goal 
(2) Afghanistan-Pakistan situation: Stabilization of security needed 
to prevent outflow of nuclear weapons 
 
Tokyo Shimbun: 
(1) Debate on extra budget: Government should give clear replies 
(2) Eco-cars: Time to review auto regulations 
 
 
Akahata: 
(1) Safe society: Drastic change in LDP-New Komeito politics 
necessary 
 
(7) Prime Minister's schedule, May 5 
 
NIKKEI (Page 2) (Full) 
May 8, 2009 
 
Local time 
 
TOKYO 00001059  006 OF 006 
 
 
 
Evening Left Tegel Airport, Berlin, by government plane. 
 
Prime Minister's schedule, May 6 
 
14:33 Arrived at Haneda Airport. 
15:08 Met with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Matsumoto at the 
official residence. 
 
Prime Minister's schedule, May 7 
 
8:20 Met with Matsumoto at the Kantei. 
9:00 Lower House Budget Committee meeting 
12:07 Arrived at the Kantei. 
13:00 Lower House Budget Committee meeting. 
17:39 Met with Vice Foreign Minister Yabunaka and European Affairs 
Bureau Director General Tanizaki. 
18:53 Met with chiefs of economic departments of various news 
agencies at Kissho, a Japanese restaurant in Yurakucho. 
21:24 Arrived at the official residence. 
 
ZUMWALT