Thank you very much for attending tonight's reception on the occasion of the 53rd Anniversary of the Self-Defense Forces of Japan.
At the outset, let me note that this reception coincides with the departure of our Defense Attaché, Colonel and Mrs. Yukio Yasunaga,and the arrival of his successor, Colonel and Mrs. Hideo Takahashi. I kindly ask all of you, especially the members of the DND, the AFP, and the defense attaché[c] corps to render their friendship and assistance to Col. Takahashi, as you have kindly done to Col. Yasunaga.
During Col. Yasunaga's very successful three-year posting here in the Philippines, the dimensions of the defense relations between our two countries have developed in a multi-faceted manner.
The deepening of the dialogue between our senior officials has taken place, such as the annual June bilateral meeting between your Secretary of National Defense, including Secretary Ebdane, and our Minister of Defense during the so-called Shangri-La Dialogue, held in Singapore during the last three years. To top this, our Minister of Defense visited Manila for the first time in history in May, 2005, and we look forward to a return visit to Tokyo by Secretary Ebdane. Mutual visits at Undersecretary level have also intensified over this same period.
Therefore, it was quite natural that when Prime Minister Abe made his bilateral visit to Manila last December, he announced in a Joint Statement with President Macapagal Arroyo, that our own two countries work towards establishing a "Partnership between Close Neighbors for Comprehensive Cooperation," through further promotion of policy dialogues in important areas such as security and national defense. The facilitation of cooperation in disaster relief management, through simplified procedures, is a technical but another important area warranting further coordination, as agreed by our two leaders.
In January of this year, the Japanese Defense Agency was transformed into the Ministry of Defense. Other than changing its name to Ministry, the only major substantive difference, in my view, is that participation in international peace and humanitarian activities, such as the United Nations PKO as well as international disaster relief, areno longer supplementary missions but have been upgraded to be primary missions of the Self Defense Forces, along with their other primary missions such as national defense and domestic disaster relief.
Therefore the main pillars of our national defense have not changed at all. These five pillars continue to be:
No. 1. To uphold an exclusively defense-oriented policy, without any power projection capabilities;
No. 2. Never to become a military power, possessing only a modest capability solely for defense. In fact, nearly 50 percent of Japan's defense budget is for salaries and food, about 20 percent for training and maintenance, and only about 18 percent is allocated for procurement of arms and equipment.
No. 3. To firmly adhere to the three non-nuclear principles of not possessing, nor producing, nor introducing nuclear weapons into Japan. This is deep rooted in the anti-nuclear sentiment among us Japanese, having experienced the nuclear holocaust of Nagasaki and Hiroshima;
No. 4. To ensure civilian control, including accepting secondments from other government branches at senior level. I myself was seconded from the Foreign Ministry to the post of Director General for International Affairs of the Defense Ministry, which was a three star equivalent civilian secondment;
No. 5. To firmly maintain the Japan-US Security Treaty, with more than 35,000 US forces personnel stationed in Japan at present.
I hope that what I have mentioned to you tonight will help you all to understand the peaceful and constructive role, both domestic and international, that our Self-Defense Forces are now playing.
Maraming salamat po at mabuhay tayong lahat!
