Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

MONDALE, WALTER FREDERICK • 181
to PAC-3 in order to counter Taepodong missiles from North Korea.
The Japanese government developed future warning and control system
radar (FPS-XX) and the Advanced Infrared Ballistic Missile Observation
Sensor System (AIRBOSS) to search for ballistic missiles.
Tokyo has also already decided to adopt standard missiles (SM-3),
interceptor missiles operated by Aegis guided missile destroyers. The
missile defense system will be deployed from 2007 in Japan. There
are several concerns. First, the commander in the field has a wide
range of discretionary powers to launch the missiles so that civilian
control may not function properly. Second, because the Japanese constitution
prohibits collective security, MD could become a controversial
political problem. Third, MD will require a great deal of money
but at the present technology levels, chances are that these missiles
may not intercept ballistic missiles. Consequently, some experts
question the validity and effectiveness of MD.
MITSUYA KENKYU. Mitsuya Kenkyu (Mitsuya Military Planning)
was a contingency simulation scheme conducted in 1963 by top officials
of the Joint Staff Committee. Assuming the outbreak of a second
Korean war, this military planning focused on how the Japan
Self-Defense Forces and U.S. military forces stationed in Japan could
conduct a joint response, how to implement national mobilization,
and what kind of legal preparations would be necessary. This was the
first contingency planning made in the postwar era.
Haruo Okada, a Lower House member from the Japan Socialist
Party, revealed the existence of this secret military planning at a
meeting of the Lower House Budget Committee on 10 February
1965. The Defense Agency submitted the necessary documents to explain
the Mitsuya Military Planning to the Mitsuya Kenkyu subcommittee
of the Lower House Budget Committee and the Upper House
Budget Committee on 10 March 1965. Revelations about this planning
provoked a strongly negative reaction among a pacifist public.
After this incident, “contingency planning” became taboo in Japan.
See also DEFENSE.
MONDALE, WALTER FREDERICK (5 JANUARY 1928– ). Walter
Mondale was born in Ceylon, Minnesota. He is a lawyer by profession,
but served two terms as U.S. Senator from Minnesota. Then,