Metodología para efectuar la compra

Despite the insistence by officials on keeping the bases where they are and framing this within a larger concern for both regional peace and operational convenience, this is not to say that other arguments do not exist. ‘The current basing structure is not ideally located for any regional contingency whether it be peacekeeping, disaster relief, or war’, says the 2013 GUASA report. ‘All the bases […] are within range of Chinese conventional missiles […] The time of large permanent facilities located on foreign soil is a thing of the past. Smaller footprints are the order of the day’.87

Yamaguchi agrees, adding that although, for example, the USM’s facilities at Naha Airport in Okinawa were fully occupied during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, they are ‘practically empty’ otherwise—this being in stark contrast to the congestion outside in the prefecture. ‘Only 30 to 40 thousand US troops live in Okinawa’, he comments, ‘but they take up so much space’.88

If, then, ‘smaller footprints are the order of the day’, asked Senator Webb in 2012, ‘[h]ow [do we] resolve the impasse in a fashion that is positive, rather than in a way that looks as if we are losing our critical presence in that part of the world?’89 _{One possible resolution that has been}

proposed for a number of years – and is already being implemented in a number of different ways – is increasing Japan’s defence ‘responsibilities’ on the whole. ‘Japan has the opportunity – and an

obligation [emphasis added] – to take on a role that reflects its political, economic, and military capacity’, said Gates in a 2007 speech, ‘[a]nd that is why we hope – and expect [emphasis added] – Japan will choose to accept more global security responsibilities in the years ahead’.90 _Former

Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Tokyo James Zumwalt similarly advised, in a 2009 scenesetter for US Under SecDef Michelle Flournoy prior to her visit to Tokyo: ‘In addition to encouraging greater defense spending, enhanced information security, and broader legal authority to the [SDF], we are encouraging Japan to focus on deepening operational capabilities in ways that will enhance our Alliance's deterrent value, including long-range lift, [BMD], sustainment, and maritime operations’.91

Where the framing of this shift towards a more ‘equal’ partnership in terms of defence policies and spending by US officials has tended to use words like ‘responsibility’, ‘obligation’, and ‘expectation’, it is curious to note that their Japanese counterparts – while echoing some of this

87 _{GUASA 2013, p. 9.} 88 _{Yamaguchi 2014.}

89 _{Peter Ennis, ‘Webb: “US and Japan paralyzed over Okinawa”’, Dispatch Japan, 6 February 2012, available} online at: http://www.dispatchjapan.com/blog/2012/02/webb-us-and-japan-paralyzed-over-okinawa.html. 90 _{Robert M. Gates, ‘Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan)’, Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M.} Gates, Tokyo, Japan, 9 November 2007, available online at:

http://www.defense.gov/Speeches/Speech.aspx?SpeechID=1192.

91 _{James Zumwalt, ‘Tokyo Scenesetter for Under Secretary of Defense Flournoy’, Wikileaks, Wikileaks} cable:09TOKYO1373. 18 June 2009a. Available online at:

terminology – intermingle it with the familiar language of ‘burden’. ‘[I]t is also important to explain to the Japanese public that it is the time for Japan to reduce its dependence on the United States and try to assume a greater defense burden’, Yamaoka explained to Roos in their December 2009 meeting92_{; likewise, former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa told a Congressional delegation comprising}

Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on a visit to Tokyo in April 2009 that ‘the DPJ, once in power, will be a more reliable partner to the United States than the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in terms of sharing the burden on dealing with worldwide problems’.93 _{The distinction here is important: where ‘obligation’ and ‘responsibility’ both imply a}

sense of moral duty or even legally-bound commitment, ‘burden’ in and of itself is simply defined as ‘a load’.94 _{Where the framing of the bases as a ‘burden’ on Okinawans abides by this definition when}

coupled with the consequences of living close to them, the characterisation of Japan’s

‘normalisation’ in terms of ‘burden’-sharing, however, seems to strike a tone expressing discomfort with the ‘load’ of providing for its own defence.

Indeed, once the DPJ took office, the USG’s interpretation of this language became more closely linked with the party’s attempts to improve relations with China and the ROK rather than its desire to maintain good alliance relations. ‘Abe is smarter than Hatoyama about the alliance by committing more strongly to the US’, says Mochizuki.95 _{Klingner agrees, remarking that ‘from a US}

viewpoint, if we look at Japan’s defence reforms under Abe, they’re very encouraging. He’s reversed the defence spending decline’.96 _{An MOD researcher, however, comments that Japan’s spending}

increase in defence is only a ‘tiny’ one97_{, and that ‘in domestic terms, it’s a very big issue, but no}

other country discusses this sort of issue, because the fact that a sovereign nation has a CSD right as well as an individual self-defence right—that’s just a natural thing’.98 _{Another MOD researcher}

points out that the SDF still lack any offensive capabilities ‘to dissuade or deter the adventures of, or the provocations of, wrongdoers’, and therefore ‘the US military presence will [continue to]

compensate for our lack of capability. And, I should say, lack of political will [emphasis added]’.99

92 _{Roos 2009f.}

93 _{James Zumwalt, ‘Scenesetter For PACOM Commander Admiral Keating's Apr 19-20 Visit To Japan’, Wikileaks,} Wikileaks cable:09TOKYO845_. 14 April 2009e. Available online at:

https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09TOKYO845_a.html.

94 _{Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online 2016: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/.}

95 _{Mike Mochizuki, personal interview, September 2014, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.} 96 _{Klingner 2014.}

97 _{For fiscal year 2015, 4.98 trillion yen (US$42 billion) was earmarked for the defence budget, the ‘biggest} ever’ and a 2 per cent increase from last year ‘and marks the third straight increase after more than a decade of cuts’ (Justin McCurry, ‘Japan reveals record defence budget as tensions with China grow’, The Guardian, 14 January 2015, available online at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/14/japan-reveals-record- defence-budget-as-tensions-with-china-grow).

98 _{Anonymous 2014f.} 99 _{Anonymous 2014j.}