I found this episode of Wide Angle in the Notes of a wiki page linked from the HULL mailing list.

 

There apparently is a Public Broadcasting System program called Wide Angle. Around July 2008, this episode aired, I viewed it in ints entirety this morning. Here is a link - Japan's About Face.

 

It looks at the ongoing Japanese constitutional debate over the role of its Self Defense Forces. At the heart of the debate is Article 9 of their constitution - their "Constitutional Problem". It looks at cadets and instructors at their military academy, members of the powerful Japanese pacifist-peace movement, general citizens (many have no idea that they even have a self defense force) and various members of the Diet. A legislator in Part 3 declares that there is "a gap between reality and the constitution".

 

The episode includes the political debate breaking down into fisticuffs, the concerns of the people, the country's recent crawl toward overseas operational deployments. The stress over sending a replenishment ship to the Indian Ocean, aerial maritime patrol operations monitoring Chinese territorial encroachment, Noirth Korea being a nuclear power and launching ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, and the development of their recent light carrier...er, helicopter destroyer - "wink wink nod nod"

 

Having aired over the summer , it indicated that the issue of Article 9 or implementationof a General Dispatch Law should be settled during this past Fall. I'm not aware if it dod or did not so I'll have to look into that further and see if it was settled. I'd guess that I would have already heard about it if it did succeed, but maybe I was not paying attention.

 

Interesting perspective.

Pretty interesting, thanx for the link.

 

I shipped out of Japan for 10 years, and had the opportunity to cross-deck to a JMSDF destroyer for 2 weeks when I was on Midway. They may not call it a Navy, but they have some crack operators, particularly when it comes to ASW.

 

If things had hit the fan, I would definitely been glad to have them on our side.

 

Buddha