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Key vote on Japan security bills delayed as thousands protest
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) Sept 16, 2015


Japan protests after 'Russian' plane enters airspace
Tokyo (AFP) Sept 16, 2015 - Japan has lodged a protest with Russia after scrambling four jet fighters to intercept a foreign aircraft -- believed to be Russian -- which briefly violated its airspace, officials said Wednesday.

The foreign ministry made the protest shortly after the plane entered Japanese airspace off the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, near a disputed island chain, on Tuesday afternoon.

"We made the protest through the Russian embassy in Tokyo," a foreign ministry official told AFP.

"The Russian side did not confirm the case, only saying they will check facts."

The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force scrambled four jets to head off the intruder, which it believed was Russian after analysing its course, a defence ministry official said.

If confirmed, this would be the first time Russian planes have entered Japanese airspace since August 2013, when two Tu-95 Russian strategic bombers were intercepted off the southwestern island of Okinoshima, the ministry said.

Sixteen seconds after entering Japanese airspace on Tuesday, the plane left towards the Kuril island chain, claimed by Tokyo but controlled by Russia, the ministry added.

Soviet troops seized the islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, just after Japan surrendered in World War II.

The seven-decade-old dispute has hampered trade and prevented Moscow and Tokyo from signing a formal peace treaty.

A map on the defence ministry's website showed the plane crossed a halfway line between Japan's Nemuro peninsula and one of the four disputed islands, called Kunashir in Russia and Kunashiri in Japan.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is considering visiting Moscow next week to discuss a possible visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Tokyo later this year, the daily Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported.

Kishida's planned visit to Moscow was rescheduled in August after Tokyo hit out at Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's trip to one of the disputed islands.

Japan scrambles jets hundreds of times a year to defend its airspace, both against Russia and these days also against Chinese aircraft.

Tokyo scrambled fighters 464 times in the year through March against Chinese aircraft -- a record -- after they breached its air defence identification zones, which cover a wider aerial circle than airspace.

It also sent out military jets 473 times against Russia over the same period.

Beijing has warned this is heightening tensions between the two Asian powerhouses, which are already at loggerheads over a longstanding territorial conflict in the East China Sea and Japanese military aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

"While actual incursions are increasing amid the recent uncertainty, the Self-Defence Forces also appear to want to display their presence in the region," said Hisao Iwashima, a defence analyst.

Japan's ruling and opposition parties remained deadlocked in parliament early Thursday over proposed security bills as thousands took to the streets in protests against legislation that could see troops fight overseas for the first time in 70 years.

An estimated 13,000 people had gathered under drizzle outside parliament in Tokyo demanding the bills be scrapped, ahead of the scheduled committee vote -- the penultimate stage before the bills become law in the officially pacifist nation.

But the vote was repeatedly delayed late Wednesday after opposition lawmakers blocked doorways in parliament, despite efforts from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to consolidate cross-party support for the controversial legislation.

The government was forced to reschedule the special committee vote to 9:00 am Thursday (0000 GMT), a parliament official told AFP, yet there was continuing uncertainty over whether the committee would resume as scheduled.

Wednesday's street protests were the latest in weeks of rallies that have attracted tens of thousands to oppose Abe's plans to expand the role of the military, a show of public anger on a scale rarely seen in Japan.

"Japan is now heading towards war, blindly following the United States. The bills are against the constitution," said 55-year-old Makiko Inui as she stood in the rain outside parliament.

"Prime Minister Abe is wrong in his way of trying to build peace. We must oust Abe or Japan could be destroyed."

Organisers said 35,000 people had turned out for the rally, although police said 13,000 had gathered.

Earlier in the day hundreds of people faced off from a line of police outside a hotel in Yokohama, a city south of Tokyo, where lawmakers were holding a public hearing on the bills.

Demonstrators later began blocking roads, chanting anti-war slogans and trying to stop lawmakers from driving away after the debate.

- 'I am angry' -

"I am angry," said 28-year-old Hironobu Saeki, a graduate student at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, outside parliament.

"The Abe government... is taking its people too lightly," he said.

Under the planned changes the military -- known as the Self-Defence Forces -- would have the option of going into battle to protect allies such as the United States even if there was no direct threat to Japan itself or its people.

Although the current post-war constitution, which bars troops from taking part in combat except in pure self-defence, was imposed by US occupiers, many Japanese feel strongly any change would alter the country's pacifist character.

There are growing signs the bills have taken a toll on Abe's once high popularity. Opinion polls show the vast majority of the public oppose them.

But despite the fierce opposition, the bills are expected to be approved by both the committee and Japan's upper house, where the ruling coalition has a majority large enough to push them through.

Opposition parties have made every effort to block the bills, including by physically trying to prevent committee members from entering the chamber for Wednesday's debate.

But they were still expected to become law on Thursday or Friday.

Many legal scholars have said the changes are unconstitutional, and critics worry they would drag Japan into American wars in far-flung parts of the globe.

Abe and his supporters say the bills are necessary to deal with a changing security environment marked by an increasingly assertive China and unpredictable North Korea.


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